Quality of Island Life Cooperative

Members of the Quality of Island Life Co-operative (QoIL Co-op) recognize that on Prince Edward Island, people enjoy a quality of life that is both special and vulnerable. The purpose of the Co-op is to engage other Islanders in conversations around what wellbeing and Quality of Life mean; to promote the development of indicators that describe Quality of Life as defined by Prince Edward Islanders; and to promote these indicators as tools that can help people to understand how our Island society is progressing, and to plan where we want to go in the future.

Good evening, and welcome to this wonderful part of Prince Edward Island, the North Shore, land of Lucy Maude, classic scenic beauty, and severely depressed lobster prices – a problem which we hope to do our part to alleviate – at least in small measure, in the immediate future.

This tiny co-operative has accomplished a fair, full measure in the 51 weeks since our last Annual General Meeting – thanks largely to the work of the board members which I have had the honour to be involved with over the last year.

This has been a short year, just 7 months from our last AGM. Circumstances in 2007 forced us to delay our AGM until the fall. This year we are back on track with a spring AGM.

This year’s report is mostly about the recent journey of the PEI Community Accounts pilot which QoIL has been nurturing for a couple of years.

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.