Bylaw Enforcement - Meeting with Gabriola Island Trust

This Letter went out to

Hello All,

               MICA would like to give you an update on our recent activities and we would like to share a recent letter that was sent out after members attended a September 4th RPC Meeting. The RCP is the Regional Planning Committee for the Islands Trust.

Today, September 12th, your MICA committee members attended a special meeting on Gabriola with our Local Trust Committee and Bylaw Manager Mr Dingman. The purpose of this meeting was to have a workshop/round table to discuss the draft policy for bylaw enforcement. This draft policy was originally crafted by Manager Dingman and other Trust Staff.  MICA was given an opportunity to review the draft and while we felt it was definitely a step in the right direction we also felt it needed more work. We then submitted our edited version of the draft policy and patiently awaited a response from either the Trust or Bylaw. Here is a link to the recording of the meeting

Both the Trust and Bylaw have been slow to respond to our edited version of the document and the decision was made to get together in person and discuss the document in a special meeting. While time did not allow for a full review of the document, line by line, a healthy discussion about the document in general took place.

The next step in the process will be Bylaw Staff re-writing the document and then sharing the new version to MICA and the Trust for review. While we have a target date of October to try and get this document adopted, we also understand that the date is just a target and feel strongly that a well thought out document using community consultation is more important in the long run than meeting the target date deadline.

The standing resolution to defer enforcement on bylaw infraction notices, except for those of a health and safety nature, is still in place and will remain in place until a new policy is adopted and a targeted review of our LUB (Land Use Bylaws) has taken place. As with most bureaucratic institutions change happens at a snail's pace.

Your MICA committee members have been working steadily for the community's benefit and are meeting weekly in preparation for various meetings and crafting both strategy and policy that will help guild all invested parties.

As we are sure the Community of Mudge Island has lots of questions and may wish some clarity on some of the many and varied issues MICA would like to invite you to a Community Town Hall Meeting. This meeting will be open to everyone and will give the MICA committee an opportunity to discuss our recent activities and try to address any questions or concerns members of the community may have.

The date for the MICA Town Hall Meeting will be Saturday September 22nd at 9:30 AM. This meeting will take place at the MICS Hall. MICA would like to thank MICS for making this space available for these important community meetings. Please remember to park well away from the driveway to the hall and please do not block or hinder access to the emergency vehicles while in attendance.

If you are interested in some of our recent correspondence with governing bodies please have a look at the file attached with our comments and thoughts that came out of the RPC meeting. We will be adding more materials to the MICA webpage as they become available. Here is a link to the MICA Website   https://www.micabc.ca/

Thank you for your continued support and input.