In our opinion, The Islands Trust needs a major facelift if we are to salvage the heart of a concept that seeks to harmonize people and their environment. It’s a tragedy that such a laudable sentiment as outlined in the Original Trust Act could have become such an over-bearing, bureaucracy. The Driftwood recently honed in on a key issue... The Trust has not worked for the betterment of our island communities but rather as a sacred symbol of humankind’s battle to save the planet.”

I think we just need to get some perspective here.

I come from an environmentally aware family background, so you can be sure I will not be a Trustee that overlooks obvious abuses of the environment. But peoples’ dreams are important and a regulatory existence is not on my agenda.

But let’s analyze the problem more precisely. The hostility we are experiencing is over issues that have been polarized by the limits of what is possible on an island with limited opportunities to make a living and survive. It’s a popular place Saltspring Island, we love it, but we are all trying to get by on an increasingly smaller local economy that has not kept pace with the growth pattern of the last 10 years.

Solutions are being thwarted by Trust Policies that continue to point to limits on growth that would have otherwise kept pace with the natural survival needs of the community. This impoverishes the community, small segments benefit while the great majority eek out an existence on very little and this creates a lot of unnecessary tension and in-fighting.

Marcano and Clarke will seek an Original Policy Statement for Saltspring Island and feel strongly that it’s long overdue. We believe that humans can co-inhabit in the bosom of their environment using inherent virtues fostered by a community that genuinely cares for the environment. And we think most of us do. Look at how we all came together to acquire the Mill Farm, it was a wonderful example how this island can operate when it senses its priorities.

This acquisition is real, tangible preservation and protection by a Community Conservancy with virtually no budget. Just think of what would be possible if we prioritized the Trust budget of over $3,000,000 a year.

While the Trust mandate may have become bloated with power and bureacracy lately, there’s still hope for it, but I wouldn’t bring it home just yet, not until it demonstrates it can show a little reciprocal trust. A Trust that doesn’t Trust us is no Trust at all. We’d like the chance to give it a new face, give it one more chance to get with the program and include people in the equation.

This zoological garden for humans concept being developed in the Official Community Plan strips us of our human dignity and right to life and liberty. The OCP as it currently stands is the consequence of extreme concern, not for the environment, but for political correctness that would have us create a culture of intolerance.

What we don’t need right now is a final draft of this Community Plan, enough of this paper waste. We believe it is pre-mature to finalize a plan on the eve of a local government study which many people consider a much higher priority. We shouldn’t be putting the cart before the horse. We must decide on the structure of how we would govern ourselves before we lock ourselves into a game plan.

As a culture with the kind of diversity of lifestyles we have, we need to form a local government that is balanced, equitable and without agenda.

Let people and their dreams be the agenda, government is created to serve those needs and provide an infrastructure to protect the realization of those dreams for everyone.

Saltspring has reached a point where we are the people populated island, representing over 41% of the population in the entire Trust Area. As far we know no Trustees to date have used this margin of strength to excerise any extra clout at the Trust Council Level... we fully intend to remind them regularly of Saltspring’s significant tax contribution to the existence of this organization.

The Marcano and Clarke Expedition originally set out with one purpose, to discover the object of the Trust, and by the way we’ve brought it with us tonight in this sealed envelope, unfortunately I don’t think you want to see it, the object has become so distorted and transformed that you would hardly even recognise it. But if you elect us we fully intend to bring it back into shape as a friendly voice of our conscience, not as a regulatory effort.

Ladies and gentleman I let’s not make any bones about it, this organization has become a cult to some people, it has been compromised by elements in our society that see ‘people’ as the enemy. To be regulated, fenced in, and controlled with every contingency that 297 infractions might imply. This little gem of a bylaw, with its $100 fines for each infraction, lies waiting to be activated if you make the mistake of voting for any candidates who remotely resemble the former Trustees.

Watch for Clones... when you vote November 16th. Thankyou"

Good evening and welcome to the last All-Candidate’s meeting for the Islands Trust. I would especially like to include our island television audience who may also be tuning in.

In another week or so, you’ll be electing two of the candidates up here to represent, not the kind of island ‘we’ want but the kind of island ‘you’ want. We must get out from behind the eclipse of the sun we have endured for the last three years and step back into the light of this wonderful island existence.

If you are not aware of it already, Marcano and Clarke represent the more difficult, centrist perspective, that would neither be too far right nor too far left of issues on Saltspring.

Rumours that Marcano and Clarke support growth and big development are greatly exaggerated for we only support it as a natural, organic consequence of an expanding population. Islands, more so than other places, require diversification of their economic base if they are to provide employment opportunities for young people, generations to come and for newcomers who may wish to make Saltspring Island their home too.

If elected to the Islands Trust Marcano and Clarke will promise not only to uphold the ‘preserve and protect’ portion of the mandate but the ‘for the benefit of the residents’ responsibility. Perhaps at this point it might be a good idea to refresh everyone’s memory regarding this very laudable sentiment as expressed in the Original Trust Act. That is:

The Object of the Trust is to preserve and protect the Trust Area and its unique amenities and environment for the benefit of the residents of the Trust Area and the Province generally, in cooperation with municipalities, regional districts, improvement districts, other persons and organizations and the government of the Province.

Now, for all of our differences as candidates we do have this one thing in common, we all support this as the ideal ‘object of the Trust’ in fact we are required to support it if we are elected and sworn in. But tonight I feel it’s imperative to point out that this ‘object of the Trust has been distorted over the years, as experts and qualified bureaucrats have come to the public trough and feasted on this well-intentioned ideal. They have created a monster bureaucracy that costs upwards of $1500.00/hr. to maintain. And that’s if you simply divide the approximate working hours in a year into the 3.1 million dollar budget they now spend.

Ladies and Gentleman, The Marcano and Clarke Expedition as we have been calling our campaign, originally set out to find the object of the Trust and we have it with us tonight. Mr. Clarke the envelope please. This ladies and gentleman is what has become of the object of the Trust.

In some respects our being here reflects a growing sentiment in the community that this object has become a preservation & protection obsession that spends increasing tax dollars to ensure that we remain sufficiently phobic about the natural growth and development of our island communities. To further explain this I have analyzed what I would label

The Creed of the Cult
Members of the Islands Trust and its closed circle of a few hundred associates have, through a form of intellectual incest developed such a fear of outside interests, that ‘development and growth’, so natural to a community has slowly assumed ‘evil’ connotations. These outward fears only further confirm a lack of inner growth and development that is so important to the human condition.

To a lot of us, these are not happy people, they are often, hysterical, morose and lacking in faith and trust in their fellow human beings. At the very base of their environmental concern is often, a deep, dark resentment of humanity’s trials and tribulations throughout the ages. There is an ancient saying, "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." In this case the bigger the plan.

As they turn in on themselves, the clones are replicating and absorbing as much power as we would let them have. I put it to the voters that the community plan as it is written would create what I referred to last week as a ‘zoological garden for humans’ that strips us of our human dignity and right to life and liberty. The OCP as it currently stands is the consequence of extreme concern, not for the environment, but for political correctness that would have us indeed create a culture of intolerance.

The OCP further reveals a driving obsession to define the boundaries of human activity and endeavours far in excess of the Trust mandate. As a result, given the closed circle of advisors and planners, the Trust Council has, over time, lost the diversity of opinion that ensures a local government body will successfully represent the widest spectrum of community goals.

Now off the topic. Unfortunately, a reporter in our local paper, missed the central theme of our presentation last week in Fulford Hall. Insinuations were made that because we allowed a client of the Trust to buy us a beer at Moby’s that somehow we’ve been compromised. If thought and movement control is to be exercised by anyone in this room, let them come forward and specify under what conditions candidates may freely speak to the public. Moby’s is a neutral zone where anyone can meet on friendly terms to discuss the issues.

If having a beer with a client can break the ice and re-open the door for communication, it’s in the community’s best interests that we do our job to establish a rapport with those who would come to our island with land-use ideas. The advantages of a friendly approach far outweigh the disasters that can ensue if you, as public official, stonewall and alienate those who might otherwise co-operate.

Government budgets and peoples’ contributions to the tax requisition are incredibly strained these days. If we as an island expect to satisfy our continued need for amenities required by any community, then we had better start taking a stark look at establishing a working relationship with clients, not an adversarial one.

Marcano and Clarke are offering a real alternative this time around. We, without bias will honour the preserve and protect Trust mandate as it is stated for the benefit of the residents of the Trust Area. We will not turn our backs on environmental concerns if those concerns follow due process. We wish to end the tyranny of a local governing body that has been compromised by an extreme lack of confidence in people as demonstrated by their ever-expanding mandate to regulate rather than co-operate.
Thankyou.
CLOSING REMARKS

So in closing let me get back to the questionable way our tax dollars continue to be spent. When you allocate a quarter of million dollars to do a community plan, it is irresponsible to blow the majority of that budget on a first draft.

In all my experience as a self-employed artist, whether I’ve been contracted to do murals for Chemainus, or a diorama for Miniature World, or a website on the Internet, I have never blown the client’s budget on the first draft or working sketches of a project. These rough drafts act as a preview to the client, at nominal cost, to give direction to the project at hand. In this case the taxpayer has been presented with far more; it’s almost an ultimatum: accept this plan, at over $1000.00 per page and going up, or risk throwing it all away, like a bad meal. The only problem is there’s very little left in the budget to do the real work of creating a final document.

Well, rather than poison ourselves with this ‘exciting document’ as Mr. Holman perceives it, one that tries to anticipate every contingency of human endeavor, let’s give ourselves the benefit of the doubt: put a hold on the final draft of the OCP, do an objective local government study, and determine the direction we would all choose to take regarding how we might govern ourselves.

Finally, I refer you to Volume 1 of Draft 2 page ten or eleven, section A.9.1 wherein it states in part... This plan can be amended by the Trust Committee at its own initiative... doesn’t that give you the impression of a plan that’s in flux, with exact wording liable to change without you ever being informed or even noticing it. This is the Orwellian document that they would ask us to endorse and finance a rewrite of, every five years.

To repeat what I said in Fulford. Ladies and gentleman I will not make any bones about it, this organization has become a cult to some people, it has been compromised by elements in our society that see ‘people’ as the enemy. To be regulated, fenced in, and controlled with every contingency that 297 infractions might imply. This little gem of a bylaw, with its $100 fines for each infraction, lies waiting to be activated if you make the mistake of voting for any candidates who remotely resemble the former Trustees.