About the Project

Quadra Island Economic Diversification Planning Project

The Quadra Island Economic Diversification Planning Project was created to help the community respond to shifting economic conditions, climate pressures, and changing social needs. As traditional sectors such as forestry and seasonal tourism evolve, community partners recognized the need for a clear, locally grounded strategy that could support a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable island economy.

Funded through programs such as the Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program (REDIP) and the Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICET), the project is led by the Discovery Islands Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the We Wai Kai Nation and the Quadra Island Foundation.

The Economic Diversification Plan is intended to reflect community values, identify realistic opportunities, and outline practical steps for implementation over the coming years.

Develop a locally informed and implementable Economic Diversification Strategy for Quadra Island.

Identify new and emerging economic opportunities that are compatible with the island's values, infrastructure, and ecological constraints.

Engage residents, businesses, Indigenous partners, and organizations in shaping future economic directions.

Support long-term community resilience, sustainability, and alignment with regional priorities.

Discovery Islands Chamber of Commerce:

• President: Carol Ann Terreberry
• Treasurer: Carol Perry
• Discovery Islands Chamber of Commerce Council Member: Tina Oswald

Jennifer Banks-Doll coordinates community engagement, logistics, and communications

Dr. Farhad Moghimehfar
BC Reginal Innovation Chair in Tourism and Sustainable Rural Development at Vancouver Island University

These leaders work with additional partners, community organizations, and residents to ensure the plan reflects a broad range of local perspectives and priorities.

Participatory workshops that invite residents to co-create values, identify assets and challenges, and develop action ideas.

Semi-structured interviews with key knowledge holders who have deep experience with Quadra's economy, services, and community life.

A two-part online community survey that gathers both broad snapshot data and more detailed responses.

Review of existing plans, studies, and background documents relevant to Quadra Island and the region.

Together, these methods allow the project team to triangulate findings, validate themes across different sources, and ensure the final strategy is both evidence-based and grounded in community experience.

The first workshop took place on June 3, 2025 at the Quadra Island Community Centre. Approximately fifty participants attended, representing a broad cross-section of the community and economic sectors. The session began with an opening acknowledgement of We Wai Kai territory and remarks from project partners, followed by a series of facilitated activities:

Participants identified values that should guide economic diversification on Quadra Island, writing each value on sticky notes and posting them on a shared wall. These values were later clustered into themes (e.g., community cohesion, environmental stewardship, cultural respect, sustainability).

Small groups explored ideas across four domains of well-being: Economic, Environmental, Social-Cultural, and Psychological. Each table generated key ideas and aspirations for each dimension.

Participants identified existing assets (human, natural, cultural, economic, and informal) that can support a more resilient local economy.

Groups brainstormed gaps, barriers, and opportunities for community and economic development, with a focus on bridging the space between current conditions and desired futures.

Notes, worksheets, and photographs from this workshop were later consolidated and coded to identify themes that informed the survey design, interview questions, and the next workshop.

Participants circulated through poster stations summarizing themes from the first workshop, survey, and interviews, adding comments and voting on priorities.

Small groups developed concrete project and partnership ideas under key themes such as housing and affordability, environment and climate resilience, mobility and services, local economy and tourism, and community information.

Participants identified near-term, high-impact ideas and discussed what would be needed to move them forward.

The session closed with a discussion of cross-cutting themes (e.g., housing as a system constraint, funding and grant-writing capacity, collaboration across agencies, volunteer capacity) and how workshop outputs would be used in drafting the Economic Diversification Plan.

Outputs from the October workshop were summarized and linked back to the broader evidence base, helping organize potential actions by theme, impact, and readiness.

To complement the workshops and interviews, the project team designed an online community survey titled "Guiding Quadra's Economic Future: Community Priorities and Economic Diversification Survey." The survey invited Quadra Island residents to share their views on key issues affecting the island's future.

A shorter set of questions (about 10–15 minutes) focused on overall optimism about Quadra's future, top priorities, perceptions of key challenges, and basic demographic information.

An optional second section (an additional 20–30 minutes) that explored topics in greater depth, including detailed views on housing, services, environment and climate resilience, tourism and economic diversification, community well-being, and inclusion.

Participation was voluntary, respondents could skip any question, and all answers are reported only in summary form. At the end of the survey, participants could choose to enter a draw for a local staycation. Contact details for the draw were collected separately from survey responses to protect confidentiality.
Before launch, the survey was piloted with a small group of community partners and project team members to test question clarity, survey length, and technical function. Feedback from this pilot led to refinements in wording, ordering of questions, and instructions for respondents.
The survey was hosted on SurveyMonkey and promoted through Chamber and partner communications, local networks, and online channels. Data are exported for analysis and used to generate descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations by key segments (such as age, length of residence, housing status), and interactive graphs presented in the Community Survey Explorer.

Workshop outputs (values, assets, gaps, and opportunities) are coded and grouped into themes.

Interview transcripts and notes are analyzed using thematic coding, with attention to both recurring patterns and distinct sector-specific insights.

Survey data are analyzed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations to explore how views differ across groups (for example, by age, length of residence, or housing situation).

Findings from all sources are compared and triangulated to confirm where there is strong convergence (broad agreement) and where perspectives diverge or require further discussion.

The resulting themes and priorities directly inform the Economic Diversification Roadmap. They are used to identify potential action areas, assess readiness and feasibility, and structure recommendations around both near-term "quick wins" and longer-term initiatives.

Participation in all engagement activities (workshops, interviews, and the survey) was voluntary. Participants were informed about the purpose of the project, how their information would be used, and their right to skip questions or withdraw from activities. Interviewees provided verbal consent before recording.

Individual responses are not reported publicly; instead, findings are presented in aggregated form or as anonymized quotes. Data are stored securely by the project team.

As with any community-based project, there are limitations. Survey respondents are self-selected rather than a random sample, and not all groups may be equally represented in workshops and interviews. Time and resource constraints also limit the depth of analysis possible for every topic.

These limitations are kept in view when interpreting results and drafting recommendations, and the plan is framed as a living document that can be refined as new information and partnerships emerge.