SATURNA ISLAND PROPERTY OWNERS ASSOCIATION

Presidents Report -2007 2008

It is now three years since work began on the formation of the Saturna Island Property Owners Association. By any measure our association is now well established and successful. This is largely because of the enthusiasm, support and hard work of members who have worked on specific projects and the on-going work of the Executive Committee. Thank you all.

Before we get into the substantive work of our association I want to mention our approach to communications because it has become the lifeblood of SIPOA.

From the outset it was recognized that the organization would not survive nor would it reflect the will of most property owners if it relied solely on public meetings to communicate. This is because more than 2/3s of island property owners do not live here full time. Thus the internet, direct mail and the Scribbler were seen as the means to create a virtual forum which would be responsive and interactive.

Clearly sipoa@yahoogroups has turned out to be a “user-friendly” means to communicate online. Most of our members are on line and are beginning to recognize the ease with which we all can communicate with each other. The group forum was time-consuming to set up and register members but after the initial start up problems, it now appears that most members who are online are comfortable with posting notices (everything from disaster preparedness to proposals for our local school) and reading Executive Committee reports.

For those members not online, all documents and most letters to and from ministers and other elected representatives are mailed on a regular basis. Two individuals who wish to remain anonymous have taken on the task of duplicating materials and mailings to members. The Executive Committee wishes to thank them for their efforts.

This past year SIPOA has posted articles in the Saturna Scribbler in order to inform non- members of our work. In this regard, I am referring to informing islanders about our work on taxes and pilts.

Further, over the course of the past year, SIPOA has begun a series of on-going meetings and discussions with our MLA, The Honourable Murray Coell and our MP, The Honourable Gary Lunn. We also hosted a public meeting for Murray Coell last summer which was well attended and has yielded benefits. We intend to continue these face to face meetings this coming year – including hosting sessions for our elected officials on the island.

Membership

As most of you know, SIPOA went public on July 7, 2006 and invited all Saturna Property owners to become members. The response was immediate with 115 households and businesses signing up by September. Today our 160+ members represent approximately 40% of all private property owners on Saturna, come from a broad cross-section of islanders and from all the neighbourhoods on the island, including Boot Cove, Lyall Harbour, Group of 30, Old Point Farm, Winter Cove, East Point, Saturna Beach and Narvaez Bay. Over 130 members are online.

Each year the Executive asks members to identify and prioritize issues to be investigated by SIPOA. The 35 respondents to our 2008 survey told us the following issues are most important to them, in descending order:

Taxes/Property assessment

Health care/ambulance

Transportation (roads and ferries)

Fire Protection (emergency services)

Land Use (Parks Canada and Parks and Recreation)

Business Development

Community Involvement in Decision-Making

Next year we need to improve on the number of responses to our poll in order to have a better understanding of how the organization can best meet the needs of our members.

Taxation – For the second year, Lorne Bolton, who is a Chartered Accountant developed an information sheet on the property taxes paid, including assessed values by category of taxation and taxation mill rates. The results demonstrated that Saturna Property owners pay over $1,000,000 a year in property taxes to various provincial and regional government agencies. By next year we will have enough data to begin researching the relationship between property assessment and taxes. Hopefully Lorne and others will be able to assist us in this endeavor.

In terms of paying property taxes Ian Smyth reminded members of the BC Property Tax Deferment program . Now that tax time has come again we will repost his article both online and in the Scribbler to remind members and other island property owners of the benefits available to home owners over 55.

Payment in lieu of Taxes (PILTs) – As a result of the taxation analysies it became apparent that approximately $20 million of assessed land on Saturna is now in the new Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. Moreover, the national park has created a situation which not only results in lost opportunity costs for the island but lost tax revenue for Saturna Island. This is best illustrated by the fact that last year the province only billed Parks Canada $28,926 for payment in lieu of taxes. Further our research on this matter highlighted that the federal government has not been invoiced for all the park lands on Saturna and Tumbo or for the provincial lands administered by the federal government that are considered part of the national park.

Board member John Money, Tom Johnstone our Island Trustee and I met with Murray Coell on this matter and Tom and I met with BC Assessment and as of June 2008 all Gulf Islands National Park lands on Saturna and Tumbo will be valued so the Surveyor of Taxes will be able to include them in this year’s invoice to the federal government.

This is a complex issue and one aspect yet to be resolved is that presently the federal government arbitrarily decides the assessed values for federal lands and ignores the provincial system for valuing properties. In this regard SIPOA has asked Tom Johnstone to approach Public Works Canada and see if there is any possibility for a review of how federal lands are assessed and the impact on small communities.

Transportation: Roads – Over the past year the board and members have sent letters to our MLA and the Minister of Transportation regarding the deterioration of our roads. Our concern prompted MLA, Murray Coell, to inspect the sorry state of our island roads and he has impressed on the Minister of Transportation the need for immediate road repaving. In this regard the Minister of Transportation has assured SIPOA there will be “significant” work on the roads this year. We have followed up with him as to what he means by significant and are now engaged in discussions with Mainroads General Manager and the local operations manager for the ministry.

In addition to these board initiatives, members have used the SIPOA group forum to inform members about B C. Ferries.

Boot Cove-Lyall Harbour Water District

In October of 2007 SIPOA finalized a review of the effectiveness of the water district, its funds and costs and to see if it is possible for individuals or the community to opt out of the CRD local service area. The Board would like to thank Murray Rankin for his work in this regard.

The bottom line is that SIPOA encouraged members who live in the local service area and who are troubled about the costs, service, proposed upgrades as well as the infrastructure grant we received, to become more involved in their local service area.

Board Appointments

Ilio Bertolami and Patricia Sims now sit on the Saturna-Parks Canada Liaison Committee. A report is attached to the AGM minutes.

John Money and Al Stonehouse have been appointed to the Property Assessment Review Board.

PRIORITES FOR THE NEXT YEAR

The Executive Committee will continue its work on taxation, PILT and follow-up to our discussion with Murray Coell and with the Minister of Transportation on roads.

Fire Protection and Ambulance Services are rated as important priorities for members and it appears discussions are underway to house both services on Rec Centre property. The Fire Protection Society has been proactive about keeping property owners informed of their activities and how they are spending our tax dollars which our members appreciate. SIPOA has not had any direct discussions with the ambulance committee to see if we can contribute in some way.

Because it continues to be an issue of concern to members the Executive Committee has assigned a sub-committee to research how our tax dollars are collected and spent by the Saturna Island Parks and Recreation Commission.

One last comment on new priorities; SIPOA is a member driven organization and is only able to do as much as our volunteers contribute. As a result we need to hear from all members regarding what other initiatives you want SIPOA to undertake and the time you are willing to commit. Our meeting today is but one way to solicit ideas about issues we need to focus on in the coming year.

Finally, on behalf of our members I would like to thank the outgoing Executive Committee members – Brian Haley who has been our treasurer, John Gaines and Nick Kaiser for their work. We also want to thank all SIPOA members for their support and we look forward to continuing our work together.

The Treasurer’s Report follows and both reports along with the minutes of this meeting will be posted on line or mailed out to members.