The District of Sechelt has announced plans to kick off “an extensive discussion about the Sunshine Coast Community Forest” early next month.
The announcement comes on the heels of the resignations of the Community Forest’s chair and vice-chair as well as a third member of the volunteer board, and a BC Supreme Court challenge of how the organization handled community consultation before logging a controversial cutblock.
The court found the Community Forest and its district-owned operating company Sechelt Community Projects Inc. (SCPI) did everything that was required before harvesting EW23, also known as the Chanterelle Forest.
Sechelt council discussed issues around the Community Forest at a closed-door session June 13.
There were two resolutions from that meeting – one accepting the resignations of chair Glen Bonderud and vice-chair Tom Pinfold as well as board member Fidel Fogarty, and the second, “that council, as sole shareholder, direct the Sunshine Coast Community Forest board to provide the necessary funding for the Community Forest engagement plan.”
Mayor Bruce Milne told Coast Reporter after the June 13 meeting that the resignations were accepted “with reluctance … and recognition of the service they’ve done for some years.”
Milne also said councillors were expecting to receive a package this week for the Community Forest AGM, which has now been scheduled for July 23, that will include nominees for the board vacancies. Council represents the sole shareholder at the AGM and can approve or reject board nominees.
“Traditionally council has taken a fairly passive role in that [process]… We think the councils of the past, and the present, should be taking a more vigorous role in both recruiting and appointing,” Milne said. “If you’re not happy with the way the board’s going, your role is to recruit board members that reflect the values in your community and appoint them.”
Milne added that he would not go as far as saying the current board was not reflecting community values or the will of council. “I would say that council has had discussions with this board since 2014-2015 about diversity on the board … and we’ve had long-term discussions about community engagement and the role of the community in the board processes.”
When asked if the resignations could be seen as sign of tension between the leadership at the Community Forest and the leadership at municipal hall over the future direction of the Community Forest, Milne said he didn’t think it had gone that far.
“My sense is that it’s not unrelated to the interest that the council has on community engagement and how this should proceed… It might be a philosophy more than anything about whether the community should have a say or not have a say.”
In an interview earlier this week, Bonderud and Pinfold said several issues led to their resignations, including a move to limit the terms of board members.
Pinfold said the news that council had agreed, in-camera, to impose retroactive term limits was delivered at a lunch with Milne 13 days prior to the AGM, which was to have been in April. Pinfold, Bonderud and one other board member would have been impacted.
Pinfold said with three directors already stepping down, that would have left the board with just three incumbent directors.
Bonderud said the board held an emergency meeting and followed up with council, which then came back saying Pinfold and the other impacted board member could stay on, but the limit would be enforced in Bonderud’s case.
That’s when Pinfold decided he would resign. “I just decided, I’m out. This was disrespectful to the kind of leadership and effort Glen has given to the board and the Community Forest,” he said. “And I simply didn’t wish to be a part of that anymore.”
Both Bonderud and Pinfold said they felt mayor and council were starting to interfere in the operations of the board and SCPI.
Bonderud pointed to criticism from the mayor after the Community Forest donated $30,000 last month to help kick off fundraising for the syiyaya reconciliation project.
In an email to Bonderud, Milne called the board’s decision to make the donation without informing council “over the line” and suggested it should have followed the Legacy Fund grant process.
Bonderud maintains the donation was community engagement and a strengthening of the Community Forest’s close working relationship with the shíshálh Nation. And, because it used money budgeted for community engagement, it was appropriate to make the decision independent of Sechelt council.
In a response to mayor and council, which was copied to all SCPI board members and includes the original email from Milne, Bonderud said the board’s business “should not be filtered through the politics of the DoS council.”
The letter goes on to cite what Bonderud describes as arbitrary decisions including holding back 50 per cent of the dividend each year, the denial or reduction of Legacy Fund grant applications that had already been approved “through the due process,” and the move to limit director terms.
“Directors must act in the best interests of the organization they have responsibility for,” the letter says. “That may not always coincide with a political agenda… If council involves itself in operational issues, that undermines and destroys a board’s integrity... As the shareholder you have the right to appoint members to the board and receive dividends, but to involve yourselves in decision making is not part of the role.”
Milne said the district’s effort to gather public input on the future of the Community Forest and SCPI will “work toward confirming what social licence is for the Community Forest board and confirming what the community wants out of the Community Forest, whether they just want lots of dividends or whether they want other community values in some way.”
He also said he doesn’t expect current council to make any decisions, but he does expect a clear report with recommendations to come forward before the next council takes office.
Bonderud and Pinfold both said they believe firmly in the concept of community forests and hope that SCPI will continue to be a success.
“I wish them all success, because if they succeed, there will be benefits to the community,” Bonderud said.
“I trust that somehow SCPI and the council will find a way through,” Pinfold added.
The Sunshine Coast Community Forest AGM is scheduled for 7 p.m. July 23 at the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden.
