Press
Tobi Elliott will run for re-election in October
September 2, 2026 | Gabriola Sounder News
Tobi Elliott tells the Sounder she will run in the October general local elections. Elected in 2022, it was her first term as trustee and has been appointed to the Executive Committee, Islands Trust Conservancy, Financial Planning Committee and more, in addition to her role on Gabriola.
Her official campaign will launch on Sept. 14. In the meantime she provided the following to the Sounder:
Will I serve again? This question is one I’ve been carefully considering for a long time. First off, let me say it’s been an absolute honour to serve our island communities and the mandate of the Islands Trust these past four years.
Yes, I am willing to stand again for another term, for four main reasons: continuity on Gabriola’s Official Community Plan (OCP), representation for all in local government, to ensure taxpayers get a return on their investment, and on the advice of my mentors and community elders.
I promised during my run for election in 2022 that we would begin the review of Gabriola’s OCP. I’d be remiss in my service to the community if I was to leave halfway through this major project. Sitting through hundreds of hours of public and 1-1 meetings, reading thousands of emails.
Landowners and renters, families and farmers, First Nations and the Province, the environment and groundwater and ecosystems and habitats — each offer valuable perspectives that help us make decisions for our shared future. That information is a sacred trust.
We trustees can’t do this work alone. It takes passionate, keen community members who speak up for their interests and what they want to see done. Without that information, we can’t make good decisions. So if the community still wishes me to serve, I won’t abandon my post at this critical juncture in our process.
Secondly, I am passionately committed to equitable community engagement. I have learned to listen, especially to constructive criticism. It helps inform where government needs to hone its edge and meet the people.
I see my role as helping channel information to those with questions, fears and anxiety over the future, and to seek out perspectives who might be missing from the conversation. I will always support our powerhouse community groups who can assemble forums more easily than government does. Community service is dear to my heart, and connecting all people with local government is one my biggest joys.
Read the full article online: https://soundernews.com/tobi-elliott-will-run-for-re-election-in-october/
CBC News: spotlight on the work to legalize tiny homes as dwellings in BC
Excerpt from CBC News article by
Kathryn Marlow. Posted: Sep 26, 2025
A tiny home with wheels may seem like a home — but according to many building inspectors, it's a vehicle. And that means people can't live in them full time.
But a group of officials on B.C.'s southern coast say they've figured out a way to change that, and it could help solve the housing crisis in rural parts of the province.
Tobi Elliott, a trustee representing Gabriola Island at Islands Trust, said that's huge news in communities like hers, where there is a limit on densification.
…
Allowing tiny homes on wheels would let people add extra housing on their properties, without building new homes.
"They can have a caregiver living in them, or an extended family member, or seniors," said Elliott.
Read the rest of the article on CBC https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tiny-homes-on-wheels-b-c-1.7643630
New LUB could address challenge limiting new vet clinic on Gabriola
Aug 19, 2026 | Gabriola Sounder News
“Our community was actively searching and putting out calls for a small animal vet[rinarian] to come take over Twin Cedar’s vet business,” writes Gabriola Islands Trustee Tobi Elliott in an email to the Sounder.
“This limitation in the current LUB was listed as a chief concern to many residents.”
…
The prospective veterinarian and his staff came to Gabriola in June. Elliott says there were about 150 people lined up at the library to meet them, some with cookies and cards in hand.
The next day Elliott toured them around the island. “Hopefully the conversation will continue and Gabriola can get vet services again.”
Read the full article: https://soundernews.com/new-lub-could-address-challenge-limiting-new-vet-clinic-on-gabriola/
Trustee Elliott finds $205K in savings in next Islands Trust budget
Nov 19, 2025 | Gabriola Sounder News
Gabriola Island’s Trustee Tobi Elliott put forward two motions to save $205,000 from the proposed 2026-2027 budget at the Islands Trust Financial Planning Committee (FPC) meeting last Wednesday.
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Read the full article: https://soundernews.com/trustee-elliott-finds-205k-in-savings-in-next-islands-trust-budget/
Recent Writing by Tobi
Action Research Project
March 2023
Project and final report titled “Walking in Truth: Unsettling, Decolonizing, and Learning Relational Ways of Being for Key Organizations on Gabriola Island”
by Tobi Elliott.
>> Click to Download paper (184 pages)
An Engaged Leadership Project in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts In Leadership (Royal Roads University, 2023).
In service and partnership with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of the Gabriola Museum.
The purpose for this Engaged Leadership Project (ELP) for my MA in Leadership Studies Capston was to invite community organizations, non-profits, local governments, and other agencies on Gabriola Island to examine their existing processes and structures, discover ways they might decolonize and integrate reconciliation principles into their organizations, and to explore new ways of engaging and operating in order to create a foundation for stronger working relationships with the Snuneymuxw First Nation (SFN).
The graphic on the left was produced to help gently remind us how to live and walk from a place of cultural humility, in learning, as we seek to let go of our own narratives and learn better ways of belonging to the land together.
With thanks to all participants, and especially Lisa Wilcox, who is a pivotal voice in shaping my understanding of the lived reality and experience of Indigenous Peoples in the Gulf Islands.
Powerpoint presentation
Click for Dropbox link to powerpoint presentation, September 2024.
