Trustees took some time to clarify the role and terms of reference (TOR) of the Official Community Plan (OCP) Volunteer Review Committee (VRC) at their Jan. 29 Local Trust Committee (LTC) meeting.

Trustee Sheila Malcolmson said that meeting agendas should be posted, and the community should be notified of the meetings, although she did not think meetings necessarily had to be advertised in the newspapers. She noted that VRC meetings dates could be posted on the website and sent out through the LTC’s electronic notification process.

Malcolmson also said that VRC members represent their own views as individuals and not those of any group to which they may belong, that the LTC, not the VRC, is responsible for conducting public consultation, and that OCP issues are referred to the VRC by the Trust committee.

Malcolmson said there had been some confusion about whether VRC members represented groups with which they might be associated. She said VRC members had been appointed because “they are all interesting broad-minded people that represent different slices of the community, but we can’t say ‘all contractors are on side’ by virtue of us having one contractor on the committee”.

Planner Patricia Maloney said that only Lisa Webster-Gibson was declared as someone who is representing a group. She said Webster-Gibson “is the Snuneymuxw representative on the committee, as well as being a resident”. Malcolmson said this was a “bonus” because the trustees did not know this when they appointed Webster-Gibson.

Malcolmson said that consultation with other groups would need to be documented at the end of the review, and both she and Chair Louise Bell said it would be helpful to have something in writing regarding Webster-Gibson’s role.

Trustee Deborah Ferens wondered why the point needed to be made that only the LTC is responsible for public consultation. Malcolmson said that it was important for members of the public to know that although they could always present their opinions to the VRC, statutorily it is the LTC’s responsibility to conduct public meetings and receive public input. She said that the VRC has not been tasked with going out and receiving public input. It is the thoughts of the VRC members themselves that trustees are interested in hearing, she said.

Maloney noted that the LTC has asked the VRC to take a leadership role in the OCP review, and said that lots of opportunities for public input have been built into the VRC meetings. Malcolmson said the point was that there was “… nothing in the (TOR) that say that they will be conducting public consultation. It says ‘play a leadership role in community events relating to the review’, but in some of our timelines we say that … we’re going to hold a public meeting and we really want the members to come and maybe even speak or lead a little design charette (workshop) or something, but they themselves are not holding our public consultation meetings. They’ve got enough to do as it is”.

Ferens wondered if the LTC wanted the VRC to also hear community interests and issues. Malcolmson said the VRC is not responsible for doing so. She said: “They can hear anything they want but we are not giving them the job. There is nothing in our (TOR) right now that gives them the job of consulting the public. They can tell us any pieces of advice they want but we are not asking them to convene community meetings, or come to us at the end of the day, and say we have heard from everybody, and this is what the island thinks. If that was the case we should have had different TOR when we first … appointed the volunteers”.

Trustees asked Maloney to bring a draft of the revised terms of reference back to the next LTC meeting for review. Maloney said the next LTC meeting would be preceded by one for the review committee, and she would present the draft revised TOR to the VRC then.

Trustees also discussed how to deal with the minutes of the VRC meeting. Ferens had some concern that the LTC had received two sets of the VRC minutes at, rather than before, the Jan. 29 meeting. Malcolmson also noted that there were some points in the minutes that were not accurate but didn’t know what could be done once the minutes had been adopted by the VRC.