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The April meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District trustees saw some disagreements, but on the whole proceeded civilly and efficiently. We are summarizing matters and providing transcripts only where there are areas of contention or details in the discussions that we believe are of public interest.

As is typical for GFPID meetings, Trustees and others often interrupt and talk over each other, and there are sometimes side conversations, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand what is being said in the videos. Such sections are marked [unclear].

...continue reading "2026-04-08 GFPID meeting"

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The All Candidates Meeting was held on Wednesday, April 22nd, at the Agi Hall. Thanks to Gabriola Talks for setting it up and very capably running it.

Seven questions from the audience were pulled from a hat and posed to the candidates. We are reproducing the questions below (some are edited slightly to remove extraneous words). We look forward to seeing the answers in the next issue of the Sounder, and will link to that when we can.

QUESTION 1

The Board consistently struggles over which issues fall under Governance versus Operations. What specific steps would you take to clarify and unify the Board’s position?

QUESTION 2

Are you in favour of hiring a third fire chief? And if so, how do you justify hiring more full-time staff, or increasing staff in general, while call volume is decreasing?

QUESTION 3

My question is about replacement of the fire trucks. Last year I was concerned about how could we replace them and so I looked up for tools and regs  about rules and how you qualify for insurance, and the standard is for twenty years. Does anybody know, on the board, what the extension is for ... typically for a rural fire department? Anybody? Raise your hands? Nope? Okay. The extension is, you could go to 30 years given you meet some provisions for maintenance and you can demonstrate that the truck's truly viable. So I'm very concerned that we buy vehicles at 16 years, this year, when we didn't need to. [followed by a request for comment]

QUESTION 4

Since this is a body that is largely a governance body, one of the concerns I have as a ratepayer and a person who has attended these meetings is that at times I feel that the meetings are not run as well as they could be. And my concern is that I have the impression that a number of times I was disappointed in the quality of the meeting and the way it was run. I don't think that we have to have six hour meetings. I want to ask you each: Do you have a good grounding and an understanding of Robert's Rules of Order and do you feel confident that if you were elected chair that you could run effective meetings?

QUESTION 5

Matt, this is a question to you, but others can feel free to say something at the end. You seem to have aligned yourself with the D.O.W. candidates from last year's election. During that election they were proponents of lowering the budget, yet once elected they have dramatically increased it by thousands of dollars. And you say that third party expenses and legal experts' expenses are out of control. Where is the discrepancy between what they campaigned for and what they allowed to happen, and what do you propose to do to remedy it?

QUESTION 6

Recently I attended a seminar presented by Steve Earle about climate change and just how our climate is changing; it's getting hotter and hotter in the summers, less and less water, some people's wells are running dry. I just wanted the candidates' thoughts on maybe looking forward, what are we going to do for water for fighting fires and are there other things that we can do to mitigate fire hazards in the summer time.

QUESTION 7

My understanding of one of the core responsibilities of governance boards is the supervision and direction of the fire chief. So, I would like to hear from people who are currently on the board as to what processes and protocols are in place to insure that our fire chief gets appropriate supervision? And I would like to hear from people who are applying to be on the board as to what they think that should be, and what they would be talking about if they were in a position of being on the board, to ensure that our fire chief gets the supervision that he's entitled to.

We expect that all candidates' answers will be published in the Gabriola Sounder. We will link to that article when it is available on the Sounder website.

Update, April 24th: We note that candidate Matt Dow has already published the questions asked at the meeting, and the answers he gave to those questions. You can view this content on Matt's website, on the page titled Gabe Community: Questions & Answers.

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Tell us about your skills and experience.

I bring a unique skillset with progressive experience in operational and financial oversight. I am a geologist by training and began my career managing mineral exploration programs in Canada’s North. After broadening my experience and obtaining an MBA, I have spent the past decade in senior financial leadership roles, including Vice President Finance, Chief Financial Officer, Director, and Audit Committee Chair for both private and publicly listed companies. I am also a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) in British Columbia. From 2020–2022, I served with the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department. My professional roles have required strong leadership and collaboration, including managing and working with diverse groups. I am a team player who thrives in complex operational environments and excels at bringing people together, even in challenging or contentious situations.

Why should I vote for you?

While progress has been made in recent years to increase transparency and accountability to Gabriola taxpayers, I believe there is still more work to be done. I will bring strong financial oversight and leadership grounded in sound governance which will support effective operations, streamline board meetings, and ultimately help Gabriolans feel confident that the GFPID is delivering high-quality fire protection services at a reasonable cost. In the current economic climate, it is more important than ever that the GFPID maintains strong financial oversight to ensure that a clear business case supports the use of taxpayer dollars. I also want to acknowledge the dedication of the volunteer firefighters who serve Gabriola. I intend to support them to ensure they have the resources they need to protect our community, as this should always remain central to the Board’s work.

Learn more

Website:  lizwallinger.ca

Email: use the contact form on the website

Meet and greets: —

For all candidates, we recommend that those interested in their campaign

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Tell us about your skills and experience.

My wife and I have been residents and home owners on Gabriola since 2000.
I have a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Victoria, with a Major in Biology. After university, I worked for Fisheries & Oceans Canada, doing a variety of stock assessment related jobs. After injuring my back, I left DFO, and became a partner in Slow Rise Bakery.

I helped grow and run Slow Rise for 10 years, and decided it was time for a change. I then started working at the Gabriola Branch of Coastal Community Credit Union. I’ve been with Coastal for 10 years, and I recently became Assistant Manager at the Gabriola Branch.

Shortly after my eldest daughter was born in 2003, I joined the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department. I was a member of the GVFD for 16 years. In that time, I served in a number of roles, including: frontline firefighter, first responder, Lieutenant, Captain of the South Hall, first responder instructor, fire service instructor, Fire Inspector, and FireSmart Community Representative.

My time with the credit union has provided me with experience in HR management, professional development, performance reviews, committees, meetings, and collaboration. I strongly believe that accountability, transparency, integrity, and honesty are traits that the GFPID should strive to model, and I’m willing to put in the work to help do that. The GVFD and it’s members are very important to Gabriola, and they deserve the best support possible.

I’m looking forward to being able to help support the GVFD and Gabriola once again, as a Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District Trustee.

Why should I vote for you?

If you are looking for leadership that moves beyond the status quo, then cast a vote for me. I will do my best to help the Board implement good governance principles, model them, and improve the culture within the GFPID and the GVFD. The Board should act with integrity and accountability. Gabriolans should be able to trust the decisions of the Board.

The GFPID has slowly started to move towards policies, processes, and procedures that are standard in the modern world of government and governance. I believe that the Board needs Trustees who are willing to go beyond the status quo, create policies that will improve the culture and performance of the GFPID and GVFD, and ensure honest, transparent governance.

I welcome respectful discussion. Please see my website at dimitritz.ca for more information, and to contact me directly.

Thank you for your support.

Learn more

Website: dimitritz.ca

Email: use contact form on website

Meet and greets: —

For all candidates, we recommend that those interested in their campaign

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Tell us about your skills and experience.

I, John Rankin, am a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) with an MBA and extensive senior management experience in the private, public sector and Indigenous governance environments. I have served as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, and other roles within First Nation governments, where my duties have included responsibility for financial oversight, governance support, strategic planning and negotiations with Canada, the Province of BC and other First Nations.

Further, I have served on the Board of Director for non-profits, where my Financial, Governance and Human Resource experience have been of benefit.

My background includes leading complex budgets, strengthening financial controls, assessing and developing policies, and supporting boards and leadership teams in making informed decisions. I have also worked closely with governing bodies to improve processes, clarify roles and responsibilities, and ensure decisions are grounded in sound policy and best practices.

I bring a steady, practical approach to governance, with a focus on preparation, due diligence, and respectful collaboration. I am comfortable working through complex or challenging issues and helping groups move toward clear, well-informed decisions that serve the broader community.

Why should I vote for you?

I am committed to bringing stability, clarity, and a strong governance focus to the Board of Trustees.

The Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District plays a critical role in community safety, and it is important that decisions are made thoughtfully, transparently, and with a clear understanding of both financial and operational impacts. My experience in financial oversight and governance will support informed decision-making based on sound policies and best practices and help ensure resources are managed responsibly with risks managed.

I believe effective governance requires respectful dialogue, community engagement, a willingness to listen, and a focus on the work rather than the personalities involved. I will approach the role with professionalism, accountability, and a commitment to working collaboratively with fellow trustees, management, the community and other stakeholders.

If elected, my goal is to contribute to a well-functioning, focused Board that supports management and staff, the Fire Department overall and serves the best interests of Gabriola residents. Initiatives I currently plan to present as a Trustee, if elected, to the Board for consideration, include:

  • Request for a review, assessment and analysis of policies, with an initial step being determination of any gaps that may exist in and within policies as versus best practices.
  • Having ‘Briefing Notes’, which would include considerations, issues, options and recommendations required for Board decisions
  • Development of a strategic plan with community engagement (within GVFID mandate), in accordance with a Planning & Budgeting Policy, to be completed/approved
  • Review of Committees with consideration of external expertise required to enhance advice/guidance to the Board
  • Clarification of Distinction of Trustee and management roles and processes to enhance such

As with all my past commitments, if elected, I commit to further learning and understanding to fulfill my role responsibly.

I invite feedback and am appreciative of your consideration.

Learn more

Website: www.johnrankinfortrustee.ca

Email: JohnRankinForTrustee@gmail.com

Meet and greets: April 25, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm, Gabriola Library

For all candidates, we recommend that those interested in their campaign

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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.

The Returning Officer noted (at the general meeting March 4th) that at the last election “quite a few” people assumed that they were eligible to vote but were not, because in order to vote your name must be on legal title. She suggested that people check their BC property assessment forms, which list all persons on title, and that people bring those forms with their ID.

Election date:

For the first time, advance polling will be offered in the GFPID election, giving voters a choice of two dates on which they can cast their ballots. Polls will be in the Fire Hall Training Room at Fire Hall #1 on Church Street.

  • Advance poll: SATURDAY, May 2, 2026 (11am - 7pm)
  • Election day: WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2026 (11am - 7pm)
  • AGM: WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2026 (7:30 pm)

Detailed information on the election can be found on the gabriolafire.ca website.

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. GFPID Chronicles encourages all Gabriola residents to educate themselves on issues and candidates, and to vote in the election and at the AGM (if allowed by law to do so).

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(UPDATED on April 18th.) Here's the information we have on each candidate and how to engage with them. Candidates may choose different ways to communicate within our community, so these points of contact will not necessarily be relevant to all of them. (We have reached out to all candidates, and will post information about each candidate if and when it is provided to us or made public.)

...continue reading "How to find out more about the candidates"

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As per the announcement in the Sounder News, "Six candidates [are] running for four Trustee positions in 2026 Fire Board election." Three positions are for a 3-year term, one is for a 1-year term.

The named candidates are:

General election day is Wednesday May 6th, 11 am to 7 pm, at the Fire Hall on Church Street. An advance poll will be held at the same location on Saturday May 2nd, from 11 am to 7 pm.

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 annual AGM will be held on May 6th after polls close, starting at 7:30 pm. The AGM is open to the public but only landowners may vote.

More information on voting and the AGM is available at gabriolafire.ca.

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 allowed by law to do so to educate themselves on the platforms of candidates and vote in the election, and to attend the AGM and vote.

Chronicles will provide more information on candidates and election related events as it becomes available. We will post links to candidate websites (excluding those on social media sites), information on meet-and-greets or All-Candidates meetings, and invite all candidates to submit a statement answering two basic questions.

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GFPID Chronicles invites all trustee candidates in the upcoming election to provide us with answers to two questions about their campaigns. Chronicles will publish the answers to these questions after nominations close. The questions are:

  1. Introduce yourself—what skills and experience do you have that is relevant to the position of GFPID Trustee?
  2. Why should I vote for you?

If you are a candidate, and wish to submit your answers to these questions, please use the candidate submissions form to get in touch with us.

Chronicles will publish all candidate names, whether statements are provided or not. We will also publish links to any campaign websites, but note that as per our policy, we will not link to social media sites.

Answers submitted by candidates will be accepted for publication until midnight on April 17th, and the material will be published on April 18th. Any statements received after April 17th will NOT be published, because we want candidate statements to stand alone and not be influenced by what others might say.

NOTE: Nominations close on April 9th and we anticipate that the complete list of candidates will be published in the Sounder on April 15th. We will attempt to contact all candidates directly to ask for statements, but we are not a news organization and are unlikely to have contact information for all of them.  Can you help? We encourage everyone to let any and all candidates know about this post, and that they can submit their information using our contact form.

We expect the Sounder to have substantial election coverage and ask its own questions; we will link to those articles when possible.

Sounder coverage:

  • March 18: “March 23, nominations open for 2026 Fire Protection Improvement District Election”

Update

Four of the six GFPID candidates responded to our invitation and submitted responses. Our post How to find out more about the candidates contains links to the candidates' responses.

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An AGM and election for the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District (GFPID) will be held in May. Detailed information with important dates for candidates and voters can be found on the gabriolafire.ca website. Polls will be in the Fire Hall Training Room.

  • Advance poll: SATURDAY, May 2, 2026 (11am - 7pm)
  • Election day: WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2026 (11am - 7pm)

Trustee terms are three years. This election will fill 4 vacant positions; three are full 3-year terms, one will be a one-year term resulting from the resignation of Trustee Ray Appel. (Sounder News reports that shorter terms are generally assigned to the winning candidate receiving the lowest number of votes.) Should there be only four candidates, they will be acclaimed at the AGM and there will be no election.

PLEASE NOTE that only landholders may vote in GFPID elections—your name must be on title, and on the voting roll. The Returning Officer noted at the March 4th general meeting that “at the last election ‘quite a few’ people assumed that they were eligible but were not, because in order to vote your name must be on legal title. She suggested that people check their BC property assessment forms, which list all persons on title, and suggest bringing those forms with their ID.”

2026 AGM

The AGM will be held at 7:30 pm on May 6th after polls close. As per the information on gabriolafire.ca,

“Any member of the public may attend the AGM, but only landowners may vote. At Registration/Check in for attendees, the Board designate and a volunteer will check that landowners (via the roll book) have the right to vote. Each attendee will receive a neon coloured piece of paper, to be held up for voting on motions arising at the AGM.”

ADVANCE POLLING

This year the election will include advance polling (Saturday May 2nd, 11 am- 7 pm) for the first time, after some years of requests for it. This is the first year of a three-year trial, as explained during the November 2025 general meeting.

While the regular election day is a weekday, the advanced poll is on a weekend. GFPID Chronicles believes that providing a second, weekend option is an important step in increasing voting accessibility and strongly supports doing so.

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NOTE: General meetings are usually held on the first Wednesday of the month. An extra open meeting was scheduled during the month of March to address material that required a timely response but was not covered in the earlier March meeting. The agenda posted on the calendar indicated that the meeting would cover three items, but more were added.

As is typical for GFPID meetings, Trustees and others often interrupt and talk over each other, and there are frequent side conversations, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand what is being said in the videos.

AGENDA

  1. Hiring of Governance Lawyer
  2. Bylaw 117
  3. Code of Conduct
  4. Elections and Firehall Open House
  5. Election security - safe
  6. Draft Indemnification Bylaw 116

QUESTION PERIOD

...continue reading "2026-03-13 GFPID meeting"

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The March meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District trustees saw some disagreements, but on the whole proceeded reasonably civilly and efficiently. We are summarizing matters and providing transcripts only where there are areas of contention or details that we believe are of interest.

Table of Contents

Call to order, housekeeping items.

FINANCIAL REPORT

COMMITTEE REPORTS

  1. Finance Committee
  2. Communications Committee
  3. Website Committee
  4. Freedom of Information Committee
  5. Policy and Bylaw 97 Review Committee
  6. Human Resources Committee
  7. Meeting Safety
  8. Performance Management Framework

REPORTS

  1. Corporate Officer Report
  2. Fire Chief Report
  3. Training Report
  4. Association Report

BUSINESS ARISING AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS

  1. Privacy Management Program
  2. Fire Department Establishing Bylaw 118
  3. Records and Information Management
  4. Election Report

NEW BUSINESS

  1. Code of Conduct
  2. Governance
  3. First Due
  4. Trustee access to information
  5. Lawsuit costs
  6. Amui contract
  7. Purchase of camera

QUESTION PERIOD

...continue reading "2026-03-04 GFPID meeting"

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The February meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District trustees saw some disagreements, but on the whole proceeded civilly and efficiently. We are summarizing matters and providing transcripts only where there are areas of contention or details that we believe are of interest.

Signal to noise ratio (good/bad/ugly) = good

Relevant content in the February 13th edition of the Sounder:

Table of Contents

Call to order, housekeeping items.

FINANCIAL REPORT

COMMITTEE REPORTS

  1. Finance Committee
  2. Communications Committee
  3. Hiring Committee
  4. Website Committee
  5. Freedom of Information Committee
  6. Policy and Bylaw 97 Review Committee
  7. HR Committee
  8. Meeting Safety
  9. Performance Management Framework
  10. Privacy Breach Committee

REPORTS

BUSINESS ARISING AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS

  1. Privacy Management Program
  2. Bylaw XXX: Fire Department Establishing Bylaw
  3. Records and Information Management Bylaw

NEW BUSINESS

  1. Disclosure of Conflict of Interest
  2. Election
  3. Adoption of Code of Conduct
  4. Governance

QUESTION PERIOD

...continue reading "2026-02 GFPID meeting"

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At meetings of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District, motions are made, discussed, and often passed. But what happens when action been agreed upon, and how do we track what has been accomplished?

This is a busy board that addresses a lot of issues through a number of committees, often involving work over extended periods of time, so it can be very hard to keep track of the status of actions arising from motions.

This helpful table made by Trustee Wayne Mercier, Resolution Tracker 2026, compiles information about the status of recent resolutions. Click the link to view it in pdf format. We hope to update its information at regular intervals as the actions arising from resolutions are completed.

We thank the GFPID Chronicles reader who shared this file with us. (If you have something of interest to share with us, or corrections or updates regarding the information provided in this pdf or elsewhere, please get in touch.)

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The January meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District trustees was delayed from the usual first Wednesday to the second Wednesday of the month.

Because most of the meeting proceded civilly and efficiently, we are summarizing matters and providing transcripts only where there are areas of disagreement or details that we believe are of interest.

Signal to noise ratio (good/bad/ugly) = good

The January 21st 2026 Sounder has three articles reporting on this meeting:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Call to order

Introduction of late agenda items and adoption of agenda

GUEST SPEAKER

Adoption of minutes

Correspondence - none

Financial report - none

COMMITTEE REPORTS

  1. Finance Committee
  2. Communications Committee
  3. Hiring Committee
  4. Website Committee
  5. Freedom of Information Response Committee
  6. Policy and Bylaw 97 Review Committee
  7. HR Committee
  8. Privacy Breach Committee

REPORTS

  1. Corporate Officer
  2. Fire Chief
  3. Deputy Chief
  4. Association

BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES and UNFINISHED BUSINESS

  1. Privacy Management Update
  2. Bylaw XXX: Fire Department Establishing Bylaw
  3. Respectful Workplace Policy Due to WorkSafe BC
  4. Records and Information Management Bylaw

NEW BUSINESS

  1. Election
  2. Capital reserve management
  3. Motion related to capital reserve management
  4. Safety assessment
  5. Use of ceiling projector
  6. Performance management framework

QUESTION PERIOD

  1. Privacy breach
  2. Deadlines on applying for advances on tax levy
  3. Select committee to review legislation and develop a strategy for psychological safety at meetings – offer to facilitate
  4. Fire extinguishers – refilling on island

...continue reading "2026-01 GFPID meeting"

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This is the sixth 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 and is completed in this, the sixth and final post.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BUSINESS ARISING continued

NEW BUSINESS

QUESTION PERIOD

...continue reading "2025-12 GFPID meeting – Part 6"

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This is the fifth 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 and continues in the third post and fourth post.

Part 5 only contains agenda item 5 under Business Arising, the Respectful Workplace Policy. The lengthy discussion demonstrated strongly held divisions with regard to the extent of the authority of the Board with regard to the Fire Department.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Respectful Workplace Policy

...continue reading "2025-12-03 GFPID meeting – Part 5"

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This is the fourth 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 and continues in the third post.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

REPORTS

BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES and UNFINISHED BUSINESS

...continue reading "2025-12-03 GFPID meeting – Part 4"

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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

...continue reading "2025-12-03 GFPID meeting – Part 3"

Published on

This is the second 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.

For your convenience we are providing a Table of Contents.

GFPID MEETING PART 2 - agenda items

  1. INTRODUCTION OF LATE AGENDA ITEMS AND ADOPTION OF AGENDA
  2. ADOPTION OF MINUTES
  3. CORRESPONDENCE
  4. FINANCIAL REPORT

...continue reading "2025-12-03 GFPID meeting – Part 2"

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The December 3rd meeting of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District board of trustees ran for almost six and a half hours and was contentious, confusing, and chaotic from start to finish.

The Sounder wrote a strong editorial about that meeting that noted: “Compromise was a rarity at the last Fire Board meeting… Arguments were happening at the table rooted in partisanship, rather than the issues at hand. The meeting was disorganized, chaotic, and lacking in direction. … This kind of governance should not be about picking a side, and defending that side at all costs. It should be about doing the necessary work for the community.”

The Sounder also reported on two issues raised:

...continue reading "2025-12-03 GFPID meeting – Part 1"

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Republished from the original letter to the Sounder News, November 5, 2025. (The government site link has been edited to reflect an internal relocation.)

The Chief's report in the agenda package for the December GFPID general meeting notes that he is "currently reviewing the BC Employer’s Grant." 

To the Board of Trustees of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District

I am writing to formally and urgently encourage the Gabriola Volunteer Fire Department (GVFD), as an improvement district, to pursue the B.C. Employer Training Grant (ETG) to fund essential firefighter training.

Despite multiple discussions with GVFD leadership over the past three years—including the former training officer, the current Fire Chief, and the Deputy Chief—the department has yet to submit an application. I firmly believe this grant is an accessible and significant opportunity that we must not overlook.

...continue reading "Letter to the Editor: BC Employer Training Grants"

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GFPID’s board faces financial management challenges that are not of the improvement district’s making. As we understand it, they are required by the RDN to use a calendar year for financial records and budgeting, but the tax levy collected by the RDN on their behalf is not paid out until early July. The result is that income and expenses are out of sync, and that makes budgeting extremely difficult—and that means that every year, in late spring, the improvement district is likely to run out of money before receiving the tax income.

Trustee and Finance Committee chair David Chorneyko has written a paper (included in the agenda package for the November 19/25 meeting of the Finance Committee, see Calendar) called The Balance Sheet Problem. This document analyzes the problem and provides some conceptual frameworks for looking at the issue, and within those, some possible solutions. The overall goal is to ensure that everyone shares a clear understanding of the problem and can work together to find consensus on how to solve the issues.

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The November 12th issue of the Sounder contains an ad notifying Gabriolans about a privacy breach, reproduced below. Based on what it says, it appears that an office computer that had not been properly wiped somehow ended up in the hands of a community member, and has now made its way back to the GFPID. Clearly someone made a mistake somewhere.

Presumably this is the privacy breach referenced during the New Business part of the November 5th meeting. Ironically, during that meeting there were disagreements as to whether Microsoft’s OneDrive or a self-managed server was the most secure way to protect data.

This incident illustrates the common adage that the biggest vulnerability any organization has is not technology, but people.

We commend the GFPID on its transparency with regard to this issue. We also look forward to updates as to how this happened and what remedial measures are being put into place, in terms of training, policy and practice, (perhaps including compliance checklists) to ensure that such data security breaches do not happen again.

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

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

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

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

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

🐌  took a while to get there

🌀 confusion

🔥 disagreements

GFPID OPEN BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING

Date: November 5, 2025

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

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

...continue reading "2025-11-05 GFPID meeting"

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

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

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

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

🌿 efficient and reasonably collegial

🐌  took a long time to get there

🌀 confusion

🔥 disagreements

🎆 drama

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTES ON THE DISCUSSIONS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CORRESPONDENCE

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

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

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

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

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

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

FINANCIAL REPORT

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

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

COMMITTEE REPORTS

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

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

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

Hiring Committee (chair Erik Johnson): no report

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

Select committees: chairs have been named.

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

FIRE CHIEF, DEPUTY CHIEF, ASSOCIATION REPORTS

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

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

Deputy Chief (Training) report - appended to agenda

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

QUESTIONS

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

BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES + UNFINISHED BUSINESS 

1. Privacy Commissioner (Report from the Chair)

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

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

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

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

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

4. Hiring - see agenda package

5. Amending Bylaws

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

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

6. Bylaw XXX Fire department establishing bylaw

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

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

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

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

9. Review of the FR Study (Chief)

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

Still to come: New Business