Gwaii Trust was already redoing the kitchen, and now Masset council wants new floors.
For the first time since its founding in 1994, the non-profit Gwaii Trust Society is proposing a major rewrite of its bylaws — a move triggered by having to meet B.C.’s new Societies Act.
Many of the suggested changes concern Gwaii Trust’s eight volunteer directors.
They include new conflict-of-interest rules; new requirements for literacy and financial know-how; allowing alternates to succeed directors who resign or pass away; and a protocol that empowers the board to unanimously vote off a fellow director who violates policy, shows unfit behaviour, or misses too many meetings without a good excuse.
At a Masset council meeting on Monday, July 9, Mayor Andrew Merilees and fellow councillors discussed the proposals with Carla Lutner, chief operations officer for the Gwaii Trust Society, and suggested a few tweaks.
But they also asked for a bigger shift.
“To cut to the chase, we want a change to the representative structure of Gwaii Trust,” said Mayor Merilees.
The problem, said Councillor Barry Pages, is that under the current set-up, sometimes larger non-Haida communities get less grant funding than smaller ones.
“Does it not make sense to look at that, and see if there isn’t a better way to be more equitable on the islands?” Pages asked.
“We know there is not going to be any structure that is 100 per cent better,” Merilees added.
“But the way it is now is not acceptable.”
Merilees and Pages said residents started asking about uneven funding when the new Vibrant Haida Gwaii Communities Grant came out two years ago. Until 2020, each Gwaii Trust community gets an accumulating $250,000 per year that they can apply to use for large infrastructure projects, such as Masset’s new watermains or Sandspit’s Gray Bay Road improvements.
Under the current structure, the four non-Haida or “civic” communities have directors to represent Graham Island North, Graham Island Centre, Graham Island South, and Moresby Island. It means that with about 800 people and significant infrastructure costs, Masset shares Vibrant Communities funding with roughly 175 people in outlying Tow Hill, and so receives less overall than the 300 people living in Sandspit and Hardingville.
Merilees said it would be simpler and fairer if three of the civic directors represented the municipalities — Masset, Port Clements, Queen Charlotte — and a fourth represented all the islanders in the North Coast Regional District.
Under that set-up, Port Clements would become an outlier, with $250,000 a year for a village with 280 people. But while smaller, the village also has water, sewer and other infrastructure costs that most unincorporated areas don’t have.
Then again, Sandspit likely has much higher infrastructure costs than other parts of the regional district, even though it remains unincorporated.
Still, Merilees said it would be more equitable than the current set-up, and added that mirroring the existing political structure would make it easier to hold meetings and get more accurate representation. Currently, when the Graham Island North Advisory Committee meets to appoint a Gwaii Trust director, for example, there are five votes from Masset council and two from Tow Hill so the Masset choice is a given.
Calling it “a big, big change,” Lutner said the Gwaii Trust board had discussed the idea of changing the representative structure before, but it didn’t find much uptake. After the meeting, Masset council sent the Gwaii Trust directors a formal request to consider it.
A summary of all the key changes proposed for the Gwaii Trust Society bylaws and a draft of the whole bylaw will be available at www.gwaiitrust.com. To go ahead, the changes will have to be approved by at least three of the four Gwaii Trust directors representing Haida communities, and three of the four representing civic communities.
All non-profit societies in B.C. have until November 2018 to meet the requirements of the new Societies Act, or they risk being dissolved. Among the requirements are new conflict-of-interest rules that forbid directors from voting on issues where they have a financial interest, and requirements that directors be 18 or older, mentally competent, and not convicted of any fraud-related offences.
