Why a Community Association is the Best Way Forward

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.

The list of issues that are facing our island communities in Area C, as expressed to me by community residents over the course of the campaign, is fairly long.

At the top of the list is the need for a range of affordable housing options. Other urgent issues include the labour shortage, roads that are unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists, a marked lack of BC ambulance first-responders, and the impending challenges of climate change (e.g. fire, drought, storms, food security).

In Area C both candidates recognize and agree upon many of the issues and challenges ahead.

The debate is about how to engage the community and plan the path forward, and who is best qualified to do this. While the other candidate proposes an appointed Advisory Council to inform the Regional Director about community concerns, I believe that a single elected representative, even one informed by an appointed Council, would not be able to effectively tackle this long list of challenges.   

Our campaign is proposing something quite different.  We are promoting an independent, elected, inclusive, and democratic organization that would bring the community together, something like a Community or Residents’ Association.  This organization would work with the Regional Director and together they could be very effective.

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. And it would also do much more than this.  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.

Such an organization already exists in Area C and represents Read Island and the Outer Islands: the Surge Narrows Community Association.  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

A Community Association is something that I have first hand experience with as I was the president of one for five years. Along with my current volunteer positions on Quadra Island (Fire Department, ICAN, Community Kitchen), I offer decades of experience in community leadership and board governance, including leading various organizations, and building relationships at the government level. My skills and experience would enable me to be an effective representative from day one for the region that three generations of my family are grateful to call home.

So I’ll say it again because this is so key.  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.

An edited version of this article was published in the Campbell River Mirror on October 5, 2022.