[LINK] "Is the Islands Trust going too far?"

[rfmcdonald]

According to the National Post's Brian Hutchinson, the internal politicking in British Columbia's Gulf Islands between pro- and anti-development factions that I mentioned in June is continuing.

The Islands Trust has a mandate to “preserve and protect” the islands and their environment. It’s been accused of heavy handedness. It has gone after Galiano Islanders wishing to build homes — or to simply use a bicycle — on their land. Last year it nixed a “green” upgrade to a long-established Salt Spring coffee-roasting operation, a decision that cost the island scarce jobs. More recently, it kiboshed plans to open a vegetable stand on Mayne Island. Organic veggies, to boot.

This week, the Islands Trust was accused of “a bald-faced attempt to stifle dissent.”

The allegation comes from a former trustee, a Bowen Island resident named Peter Frinton. Political activists on Salt Spring invited Mr. Frinton and a Bowen Island trustee named Alison Morse to a November town hall meeting to discuss potential benefits and drawbacks of making their island into a municipality.

Incorporation is burning issue on lovely Salt Spring. A group called Islanders for Self Government is plumping for it; the group argues that a single, formal municipal structure would allow their island better management and control of its affairs, its public services and their myriad budgets, which are now determined by bureaucrats in distant Victoria.

Having Mr. Frinton and Ms. Morse speak on the subject made sense. Bowen Island incorporated in 1999. It manages its own services and the like, while remaining part of the Islands Trust, which Ms. Morse represents. Mr. Frinton participated in the Bowen incorporation and now serves as one of the island’s municipal councilors. They both know of what they speak. They didn’t go to Salt Spring to preach.

But their invitation upset George Ehring. He’s a Salt Spring Island trustee. He took steps.

Mr. Ehring emailed Mr. Frinton and suggested he reconsider. “He didn’t explicitly say ‘don’t come to Salt Spring’ but he expressed his displeasure,” Mr. Frinton recalls. He and Ms. Morse went to the town hall meeting. They spoke to more than 150 people, who learned a thing or two about how municipal government on a Gulf Island actually works.

But that didn’t impress Mr. Ehring, the Salt Spring trustee. He then crafted a proposed amendment to the Islands Trust policy handbook; it was put to his fellow trustees on Wednesday for consideration.

It was, says Mr. Frinton, “a stupid, laughable, totally inappropriate” piece of work.

The proposed amendment seemed a slap at free speech. It suggested “elected officials” not become publicly involved “in the local politics or controversial local issues in an area outside the local trust area or island municipality that he or she was elected to represent, unless invited to do so by the local trust committee or island municipality.”

Trying to prevent overdevelopment's great, but non-sketchy methods would work better than the above kind.