Quality of Island Life Cooperative

On the surface, the past year was a quiet one at the Quality of Island Life Co-op: there were scant public meetings and very little about us in the press. Just beneath the surface, though, some very important stuff has been happening, with excellent progress being made toward a new long-term strategic approach. With this in mind, I consider the writing of this report a fruitful time to reflect on our origins and look ahead to some exciting possibilities for the future. I hope this President’s Report might spark a good discussion, so that this AGM will provide important insight and energy to help carry us
forward.

I shall begin with some personal reflections. I first became aware of the whole notion of Sustainability and Quality of Life Indicators in the early1990s, when Katherine Clough and Rory Francis were spearheading an impressive project along these lines within the bureaucratic bowels of the Island Government. I was privileged to read some of their early documents, and I was excited by the idea of actually measuring progress in areas such as health, the environment and social progress – as well as the “usual suspects” of unemployment rates and GDP. This pioneer effort eventually foundered, dragged beneath the proverbial waves by bureaucratic inertia and political whatever.

The idea of an Island-based Quality of Life “Index” remained in my mind during the latter part of my time as Director of the Institute of Island Studies. By “Index” here, I was thinking along the lines of a coherent set of indicators, divided into four or five key categories (for example – economy, health, education, environment, culture), with enough quantifiable indicators in each to provide a dependable aggregate measure of progress. I thought there should be substantial “public engagement” and participation in the selection of the indicators, thus incorporating both popular wisdom and buy-in. I also anticipated regular (perhaps annual or bi-annual) public reports. In my more optimistic flights of fancy, I imagined the fate of future Island governments hanging in the balance as an eager public debated the findings of the latest Quality of Island Life report!

The emerging international context of the Institute’s work also influenced my thinking. I became more aware of sustainability-indicator work being done on other islands – such as Tasmania. With characteristic over-ambition, I fancied that the Island could become the world leader in creating a comprehensive small-island-based Quality of Life Index, a model for others.

But I had other fish to fry at the Institute, most notably the new MAIS (Master of Arts in Island Studies) – and I put the most of my remaining energy and resources into that. I left the Institute in the summer of 2003.

However, I remained keen about the idea of a Quality of Island Life Index, a concept in which neither government nor university were showing much interest at the time.

Therefore, I talked the matter over with some friends – people like Katherine Clough and Diane Griffin, who had co-written the Province’s excellent “State of the Environment” report, the most ambitious effort to date to apply indicator-quantification methodology to public policy in Prince Edward Island. A group of us then organized a major one-day Symposium – held at the Macphail Homestead, Orwell, on October 14, 2003 – for the purpose of “exploring the possibility of establishing a Quantity of Life Index for the Island.” Wendy MacDonald wrote a “Backgrounder” for the event and took her usual
thorough set of notes. At the end of the day, the good crowd of enthusiasts in attendance empowered a small committee (Steering Group) to proceed toward a new organization.

The Steering Committee moved with alacrity! Our first meeting was held on October 23 and tentative plans were made to set up a Co-operative. The official by-laws were adopted a week later at the home of Alan and Lilly Baker in Iris. And by the end of 2003, the Quality of Island Life Co-op had been officially incorporated under the PEI Co-operatives Act. In our constitution document, our purpose is set forth thus: “To develop indicators through a process of community participation and formal research, with the aim of enhancing and monitoring the quality of Island life.”

I shall summarize briefly the remainder of the short history of QoIL. In December 2003, we developed a one-page Statement of Purpose (a still-pertinent document; a copy is appended to this report); in January 2004 we held a strategic planning session and adopted a draft strategic plan; the founding AGM of QoIL was held in Charlottetown on May 13, 2004 – at which Rob MacLean was elected our first Chair; the second AGM occurred at South Rustico a year later, and I was elevated to Chair. Thus, this present meeting is our third AGM. We’re still a very, very young organization.

So, where does this leave us? What have we accomplished to date? And where should we be heading now?

A quick judgement on our progress might conclude that we’ve accomplished damned little. The amount of money we have raised – and spent – is scant; we have no staff, no office, no website, and the dream of some sort of coherent set of quality of life indicators for the Island remains a hope for some future time.

Looked at from another perspective, though, we may be assessed rather more positively: some fine conceptual work has been done on our purpose and mandate; we have a decent public profile; and, most importantly, we can boast of 30 committed, well-connected members. In fact, it’s an excellent foundation on which to build; wonders have been performed with much less.

I mentioned at the outset that this has been an incubation year. Much time has been spent mulling over the excellent and successful Community Accounts program in Newfoundland (see www.communityaccounts.ca), an initiative of that province’s Statistics Branch in association with Memorial University. This thinking process started in earnest at the 2005 AGM when the guest speakers were Alton Hollett and Dr. Doug May, the two main maestros of Community Accounts. It struck many of us at the time that something similar might be possible in PEI, but with more of a Quality of Life focus.

Alton and Doug encouraged us in this, and offered to put their knowledge and resources very much at our disposal. And so the key question became – How could we take advantage of this opportunity?

Much of the credit for figuring out a way forward goes to Katherine Clough, along with Diane Griffin, Matt McGuire, Irene Novaczek, Wendy MacDonald, and other members of the Board. Katherine visited Alton and Doug during a trip to Newfoundland; she was much impressed with their operation, including the dynamic and talented staff. The idea then emerged of doing a couple of experimental community account initiatives in Prince Edward Island – and the Newfoundland Community Accounts team would help with the presentation of the data. Matt is the Chair of the Tyne Valley Municipal Council; he
offered to help mobilize his village and some surrounding areas as one of the two prototype communities. The other is the Trout River watershed in the New London area, chosen for two reasons: we thought it would be instructive to do a project with an environmental focus; and we identified a solid local group (TREC) willing and able to work with us.

With these decisions made, we applied for and received funding to hire a research student for the summer – Stacey Enman from Victoria West. Stacey is already hard at work, operating out of the municipal building in Tyne Valley.

The connection with Newfoundland continues to be strong. Alton and Doug spent two days on the Island in early June, visiting and making presentations to the local groups in the two communities. They also helped guide us on the local research agenda. By fall, we should have important “quality of life” data for them – and they can go to work on a two-community presentation for us.

I’ll conclude this section of my report with a couple of long-term strategic questions and observations. They may help to spark the general discussion at this meeting.

One reason our Newfoundland colleagues are so keen to help us is that they’d very much like to see a version of Community Accounts used in all four Atlantic Canadian provinces. Also, they’ve made it clear that they would like to work with PEI – on a contractual basis – to help build the PEI system. In fact, they think we could start right away with the standard Statistics Canada and other available data, while the QoIL continues to work on issues of quality of life indicators and community participation. In a sense, this would be a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches….

Looking at the broad picture in PEI, I think it’s pretty obvious who the key players are – or should be. The Provincial Government is one – perhaps with a community development emphasis. A second is UPEI, most likely spearheaded by the Institute of Island Studies. Third is the Federation of PEI Municipalities. And fourthly, all the rest – especially the special-interest NGOs in health, environment, culture, and related quality of life areas.

So, what should we be working toward in the long-term – what sort of end-product? And what should be the role of QoIL? I’ll hazard an answer to that second question: QoIL is and must be a catalyst and leader, from start to finish, with special responsibility for the quality of life aspect.

How and when should the other key players be brought on board? Alton and Doug visit PEI on a fairly regular basis; they’ve made it clear that they’re quite willing to make special presentations to Executive Council, to the UPEI President, to the FPEIM, to whomever…..

And then, of course, there’s the whole issue of funding. Alton suggests we could get cracking on it right away if we had two full-time researchers collecting the data; the timeframe would be about three years, very roughly. The total cost??

On the other hand, QoIL may not want to go along this route at all….

I’ll close with a couple of “thank-yous”. I’ve had the pleasure of working with an excellent Board of Directors, individuals with outstanding knowledge and experience. Thank you also to Diane and Katherine, for making your homes available for meetings; and to Billie-Jean Flynn for compiling and sending out our e-bulletins.

On behalf of everyone, I want to express special appreciation to two founding Board Members who are stepping down at this meeting. Diane Griffin has acted as a competent Treasurer and sparkplug-at-large. Wendy MacDonald served for a year as Secretary, helped with funding applications, and generally made available her wide knowledge of PEI statistics of all kinds.

As for myself, I’ll continue to be an active member of QoIL, ready to pitch in where and when needed.

Respectfully submitted,
Harry Baglole