on October 15th

Elect

Marc Doll

Who Is Marc Doll?

If you live on Quadra Island, Marc is the man you know from…

Fighting fires, attending first responder calls, and serving pancakes at the Fire Hall
Giving talks about food security at U of Q and the Garden Club
Cooking soup at community lunches
Hosting Local Food Potlucks and giving tours at Foot Forward Forest Farm
Selling pasture-raised meat and compost tea, and chatting about one of his biggest passions, soil!

You might know his family too:

Jen & twins Charlotte & Gabrielle

Jen Banks-Doll farms with Marc at Foot Forward Forest Farm. She also helps to lead the Quadra Island Garden Club and the Quadra Island Young Musicians Fund. Jen has a Masters degree in Social Work, and specializes in community development and policy implementation.

Charlotte and Gabrielle Doll are just entering grade 8 at Phoenix Middle School. They can be seen helping on the farm, busking with their violins in Q Cove, bussing tables at Tsa Kwa Luten, and in the 2022 May Day Parade as the retiring 2021 Queen (Gaby) and Princess (Char).

Why will Marc make a great Regional Director for SRD Area C?

16 principles will guide his decision-making. Find them HERE
Variety of life experiences – teacher, entrepreneur, community organizer, environmental advocate, farmer, and fire fighter
Proven community leader and community builder
Land steward and regenerative farmer
Long-time environmental advocate and educator
Compassionate and concerned about people
Respectful of our Indigenous neighbours
Clear communicator
Experienced and effective at chairing and participating in meetings
Understands politics and government
Believes in the power of partnership
Welcomes differences of opinion
Big-picture, long-term thinker
Will listen, learn, talk, partner, and empower community to get things done!

What is the Big Idea of this Campaign?

I think it’s time for Quadra Island to start a Community Association.

Real progress for Area C needs an experienced and effective leader elected as Regional Director, working together with an inclusive and independent Community or Residents’ Association. I see this as the best way to address the issues confronting Area C, now and for many years to come.

Read Island and the outer islands already have a Community Association: SNCA or the Surge Narrows Community Association. It is incredible what they have been able to accomplish, working with the previous Director, Jim Abram. Recently they were awarded a $2 million grant to revitalize their Shoreline. And that is just the beginning. Nearby Hornby Island has HIRRA, the Hornby Island Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association, and Denman Island has DIRA, the Denman Island Residents Association, both of which work to accomplish great things for their communities.

A Community Association could provide a safe place for all residents to meet regularly to discuss issues and make decisions together for our community. It would enable the community to have a collective voice that could inform the Regional Director, as well as anyone else seeking input. It would harness the energies, experience, expertise, and passion of the community as a whole to vision, plan, seek grants, advocate for, and actually implement solutions to the challenges we face.

On Quadra Island we already have many close knit and highly skilled neighbourhoods and organizations that have shown how much they can achieve. Now I’m eager to help develop a formal, long-lasting association that will help everyone pull together even more. I see this as the next step in working together as a community for our community

What is Marc hearing from you?

We live in an incredible place. Life is good here in so many ways.

That said, we still face challenges and have obstacles that we must overcome. What are they?

Marc has been meeting with local residents, including representatives of various organizations and businesses. From these consultations, a long list of issues is emerging.

Below is a list of the concerns Marc has heard about the most. Is something missing?

CONCERNS ON QUADRA ISLAND:

Housing challenges e.g. lack of housing that meets the needs of the people who live and work, raise their families, and want to retire and grow old here; overreach of Residential Tenancy Act; lack of government support for affordable housing
Economic challenges e.g. sustainability of local businesses, the importance of locals supporting local businesses when possible
Environmental challenges e.g. water, climate change, environmental protection of forests and waterways
Supply chain challenges that impact things like food security
Healthcare challenges e.g. doctor shortages, other sources of medical care not available, ambulance availability
The threat of forest fires, and a desire to expand the Fire Protection Zone of the fire department in some parts of Area C
Not enough support for people dealing with mental health and addictions issues
Lack of shoulders on important shared vehicle/cyclist/pedestrian routes
Long ferry wait times, especially in the summer
Strict Island Health/VIHA regulations and their impact on the implementation of the OCP (Official Community Plan)
Golf Course expansion and RV sites
Area planning issues: lack of a clear process, the need for adequate public consultation, the need for updates to the OCP (Official Community Plan)
Volunteers aging/burning out, the desire for better institutional support for local volunteers
Lack of a plan to deal with rising sea levels and other ravages of the climate crisis
Governance challenges: governance model of the SRD makes local representation challenging, the impossibility of one elected position taking on all local issues
Bylaw 461: SRD’s desire to avoid the democratic process
Lack of social cohesion, exacerbated by the pandemic, community division, and no one to bring us together

CONCERNS IN THE SURGE NARROWS COMMUNITY:

Appropriate and increased parking at the Hoskyn Landing dock at Surge Narrows for Outer Island Residents
Allocation of the 2 million +/- in grant money for Read Island being held up by bureaucracy
Lack of affordable/appropriate housing
Zoning/Lot size flexibility to allow transition of family properties from one generation to the next
Lack of waste transfer stations and recycling centers
Outer Island and Inlet communities’ unique character and needs are being forgotten and “lumped in” with larger population centers such as Quadra Island
How to attract youth and young families to the Outer Islands to keep the Surge Narrows community vibrant and to ensure the sustainability of the Surge Narrows School
No OCP (Official Community Plan) for Read Island
Lack of integrated transportation plan e.g. connecting the bus in Campbell River to the ferry
Volunteer burnout

Do you want to tell Marc about the challenges you are seeing or experiencing? Please send him a message or request a meeting.

"A lot of work needs to be done to face current and future challenges. Many people are doing good things. But they need help. In my experience, the way to address many of the problems we face is through the creation of a strong, organized, connected, and vibrant community. Let’s work together to address our challenges and make our communities better. Let's work together to become better prepared for the future."

Our future

Here are some of Marc’s ideas, informed by his conversations and consultations with you:

We need to be a place where community-focused groups can tackle the unique challenges our island communities face. LET’S WORK TOGETHER to create, expand, empower, enhance, and properly resource community-focused groups.
We need to be a place where local leaders and groups feel like they can step up and build the community we all want and need. LET’S WORK TOGETHER to develop governance systems that empower local people and organizations to get this important work done.
We need to be a place that BOTH attracts young people and families and a vibrant labour force AND retains its long-term residents, instead of losing them due to unaffordable, inappropriate, or non-existent housing. LET’S WORK TOGETHER to create more diverse housing options for seniors, families, the local workforce, low-income islanders, and long-term residents.
We need to be a place that understands that our location is at the very end of a complicated and delicate supply chain for food and other things, and this puts us in a very vulnerable situation. LET’S WORK TOGETHER to increase our ability to supply ourselves with the essentials we need, like food.
We need to be a place that is ready for the economic and environmental challenges that are just around the corner. LET’S WORK TOGETHER to plan for our future, and to deal with and adapt to the challenges ahead.

A single elected voice is not the path to moving a large project, or even a variety of small community-enhancing projects, forward. It takes an active organized community to make that happen.

The Regional Director’s job should be to engage and empower. It should be to help organize and then amplify the energy, ideas, and community-building voice of the people within the Area.

Marc has chosen “Empower Community” as his mantra for this campaign. If elected, it will be his mantra for his work as Director. It is what he has always done, and how he will do things if elected.

“I have a lifetime of experience in community-building, partnerships, and working with government and the private sector to make things better. I would like to put it to use to help make Area C an even better place to live, work, play, and call home for those who feel at home here.”

Are you in Area C?

Discovery Islands & Mainland Inlets

Including:

Bute Inlet
Hardwicke Island
Homathko River
Loughborough Inlet
Maurelle Island
Port Neville
Quadra Island
Raza Island
Read Island
Redonda Island
Refuge Cove
Sonora Island
Southgate River
Stuart Island
East & West Thurlow Islands

Can’t read the map? Try clicking on it and zooming in.