Quality of Island Life Cooperative

The Quality of Island Life (QoIL) Co-operative has been set up to develop and promote Quality of Life (QoIL) Indicators that will provide a more complete and accurate picture of the state of Prince Edward Island: its people, plants, and animals and the land itself.

The Creation of Qoil

The project to develop QoIL indicators came out of a convergence of conversations and ideas which have been floated on Prince Edward Island during the past decade. What really matters to Islanders? What are the important indicators of the quality of Island life? Judging from public discourse, economic indicators such as gross domestic project (GDP), job creation, and tourism and agriculture statistics are the ones that matter -- they are certainly the indicators upon which decision making and reporting on progress are based. But there is an underlying concern that we have not captured those less tangible qualities of Island life that really matter to those of us that live here.

The project will draw on the experience of related jurisdictions in quality of life studies. We intend to inject a unique Prince Edward Island contribution to the rapidly expanding field of measuring and analyzing change in economic, environmental, and socio-cultural spheres. As a distinct island jurisdiction in a complex bioregion governed through the Canadian Federation we offer some advantages and challenges. National statistics do not always capture the picture of life on Prince Edward Island, often because of sample size and issues related to statistical significance. QoIL will complement national statistics and sometimes challenge the implicit assumptions they convey.

The organization has two components to its mission:

1. Public engagement on what constitutes well-being and quality of life The values and opinions which emerge from public engagement will dictate the paradigm under which the research will be carried out. Public engagement will serve two distinct needs: one to provide the platform of values from which the research will be launched and the other to facilitate the communication and feedback to Islanders in their communities.
2. Rigorous quantitative and qualitative research on social, economic, cultural, and environmental indicators The Co- operative will develop a research project to organize, synthesize, and analyze statistics for presentation to citizens and policy makers. Transforming these data into meaningful indicators will help citizens understand and influence complex socio-economic and environmental phenomena. Such measures must become part of the public decision-making process and will stimulate our leaders to put as much energy into promoting social progress and preventing environmental decline as they currently put into promoting economic growth and job creation.