
Editors note: This is what some Cortes Island residents were discussing in late 2019, and early 2020.
One of the key points that Marc Doll keeps mentioning, in his campaign to become Regional Director of Area C, is the need to form a Community Association. In today’s interview he explains why.
“There’s significant differences between a Community Association and an Advisory Council,” explained Doll.
“It’s created by the Regional Director, for the Regional Director. It is an attempt to give the Regional Director some input from a select group of people on the island.”
“A Community Association, on the other hand, is created for the community by the community. It is independent of a Regional Director.”
Q/Why is this important?
“Well, I think it’s incredibly important on basic democratic principles, on community building and community organizational principles. The other thing is in terms of effectiveness, a Regional Director is one person who has, in our case, two votes on a council with 35 votes. There is limited power that comes with the voice of one.”
“However, when a community is engaged and working on issues, its voice is more than just the Regional Director table. Its voice extends out beyond that. It also adds weight to the voice that the Regional Director is bringing to the SRD table. Instead of saying, ‘Well, I’ve consulted with my people, and we believe this is the way to go,’ you’re now, ‘hey, the community has put the work into this issue. We’ve gone through a democratic process. Discussions were had. This is the way that Quadra Island and the Outer Islands wants to go.’ Weight really helps move community issues forward.”

“Another important aspect of a community association is it isn’t all about working on the next problem. It’s also doing the work of making a community better, of getting groups together, of making collaboration possible, of creating partnerships, of engaging people, getting people to focus on their community. Its reach is much more than just advising a Regional Director. It does the work of community building and making a community better.”
Q/How would you go about forming a Community Association on either Quadra Island or Area C?
“We already have a Community Association in Area C with SNCA, Surge Narrows Community Association on Read Island.”
“So we know that it is possible. We have examples on Hornby Island with HIRRA and Denman Island with the Denman Island Residence Association. So we have examples to follow. We’re not going to be inventing this from scratch. Like all not-for-profit organizations, there’s a basic template that needs to be followed. How it’s going to come about is actually already starting. One of the big parts of this campaign is finding those who have the passion for this community, that have the energy, that want to step up and make this happen. And as I’ve spent the last four months talking to people, (I can testify) the number of people wanting to jump on board is significant.”

“Getting messages like we got just this week from somebody saying,’ my chances of being appointed to an Advisory Committee are small, but I will join a Community Association in a heartbeat to make this community better.’ Those are the types of messages that we’re getting.”
“We know the interest is there and it’s simply engaging in and harnessing the skills and passions that we know people in this area and on these islands possess.”
Q/How can a Community Association work towards solving some of the big problems in Area C?
“One of the reasons why a lot of these things aren’t moving forward is because one person who has done incredible yeoman service and has worked really hard to move things forward, but at the end of the day, it’s one person.”
“It’s when a community comes together around these issues that they really are able to move forward. We can take, for example, here on Quadra Island a senior’s housing complex that was built recently. How that happened was not that the government came to Quadra and said, ‘Hey, we have money. You guys want to build a senior center.'”
“It was much like where a community association would do this work, but here it was engaged, passionate people on the island that made a plan. Once all that work was done, they went out and said, ‘Hey, where can we find the money?’ And they were able to find money that was available and brought that here because they’d done the work ahead of time.”

“And that is what a community association does. They identify problems like with housing. It’s going to take a lot of creative solutions like co-housing, tiny homes, cooperative housing, agricultural based communities. The list kind of goes on and on and all the opportunities, but it’s going to take buy-in from the community to move any of them forward.”
“A Regional Director just saying, ‘Hey, this is the path we want to go down,’ is not going to be able to necessarily bring the community along on that path. But if the community itself establishes that path and the Regional Director is there to amplify that voice, things get done.”
“Government has been out of the housing game since the nineties, and because it’s now approaching crisis levels, we know that when things hit crisis level, governments get re-involved.”
“So if we as a community get together, make the plans, get the buy in when government starts doling out money for big projects, we’ll have Area C, Quadra Island, the Outer Island’s ready and organized. So we are at the front of the line for the grant monies that are going to be coming out in short order.”
Top image credit: Marc Doll en route to Read Island – submitted photo
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