Our island. Our future.

Lasqueti Island. Our home. Our say.

Bring local choices home. Ask BC to study a town with a council we elect. Show the costs. Let residents weigh the plan.

Read and sign the study request
An illustration of island life

At a glance

A signature starts a request.

  1. 01

    Ask BC

    Sign the request for a town study.

  2. 02

    Test the plan

    A study should set out costs, services and choices.

  3. 03

    Let people decide

    A later vote is a separate step if the plan goes ahead.

A signature asks for a study. It does not approve a town or cast a later vote.

Sources for this guide

Lasqueti Island. Our home. Our say.

A council we elect. A voice that counts. A future we help shape.

Ask BC to start the study for Lasqueti Island to become a town.

Start the town study. Add your name.

Signing asks for a study. Any later vote on becoming a town is a separate step.

Private project. The petition is open. Read the public records and ask BC to study a town for Lasqueti Island. We want a council we elect. This private campaign does not speak for the whole island.

The exact petition

We, the undersigned, call on the Province of British Columbia to study incorporating Lasqueti Island as its own municipality, with a council its residents elect and the ordinary powers of a BC municipality. Under current law that municipality would be an island municipality for as long as the Islands Trust area exists (Local Government Act s. 6). This petition is for a town. It is not a promise to keep the Islands Trust. Abolishing the Trust — and returning planning either to a municipality or to the regional district — is a separate petition at abolishislandstrust.org.

Petition text version 2. Read the revision history.

Latest from Islands Trust

Checked

Bylaw 107 stopped; 108 requested for a later agenda

The July 6 draft minutes record a decision to proceed no further with Bylaw 107 (LA-2026-015). They request that draft Bylaw 108 and its project charter return at the earliest available meeting (LA-2026-014). That request is not first reading or adoption of 108. No later decision was found in the recent document listings checked on November 1.

Lasqueti draft minutes, July 6, page 5

Read the full update and sources →

The people who keep Lasqueti Island working

A job has a price.
So does the trip.

Pick a job. See its pay in four places. Then see what firms charge to make an island visit. We want more homes for workers and room for local firms.

Explore pay and work costs

516jobs to explore

4broad pay benchmarks

  1. Choose a job
  2. Compare its pay
  3. Check the trip costs

Default pay uses September 2026 dollars. Original pay is one click away. Each region and source is named.

Fair enforcement. Decisions we can see.

Our local trust committee can choose what to enforce first. It can tell staff to close a file. Staff check the facts and handle notices. Show us how those powers are used. Each island's bylaw and screening rules must be checked separately.

Who controls enforcement and adjudication →

The full case. Sources and details.

Two petitions. Two decisions.

Ask BC to study a town with a council we elect. Read the exact request above. While the Trust area exists, current law calls a new town wholly within it an island municipality. That is a rule we face. It is not a promise to keep the Trust.

The separate petition asks BC to end the Trust. A town would take on planning where there is one. Elsewhere, the regional district would do it. Sign one petition, both, or neither.

The island, on the record

480 parcels across 7,708 hectares, mapped and inspectable. 197 Islands Trust meetings archived since 2012.

These counts cover the land lots in our stored Lasqueti Island map region. We leave out water lots. The mapped area is the sum of those lots, not a fresh survey of the island’s shore.

Statistics Canada counted 498 residents on Lasqueti Island in the 2021 census. The 2016 count was 399. That is a change of +24.8% in five years. The 2021 census counted 506 private dwellings. Usual residents lived in 294. That left 41.9% without usual residents on Census Day. This is not a count of homes empty all year. The middle age in 2021 was 54.8. In that year, about 442 residents were adults, age 18 or over. This is an estimate. Statistics Canada does not publish that age split for this place. These figures cover Lasqueti Island Trust Area, the place Statistics Canada names in its table. Source: Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0012-01 — Population and dwelling counts: Canada and designated places (2021 Census).

2026 trustee election — Official winners declared

Timothy Peterson: 142 votes (declared elected); JS McIntosh-Fash: 131 votes (declared elected); Noel Taylor: 115 votes; Pachiel Smith: 87 votes; Dave Olsen: 76 votes; Torban Klebe: 24 votes. The chief election officer declares Timothy Peterson and JS McIntosh-Fash elected. The Trust abbreviates Torban Klebe as Tor Klebe and lists Noel Dawn Taylor and Pachiel Loren Smith with their middle names. Vote totals are from qathet’s official determination of results, which corrects Tor Klebe’s preliminary count from 23 to 24.

Results checked on 1 November 2026 against the Trust’s October 22 confirmation release. The twelve local trust areas have confirmed elected or acclaimed trustees. Bowen’s municipal appointments remain pending until November 9. Candidate vote totals and confirmation of the winners are separate records. Trustees are scheduled to be sworn in on November 12.

qathet Regional District, official declaration of election results

Public-record check · 1 November 2026

Bylaw 107 stopped; 108 requested for a later agenda

The July 6 draft minutes record a decision to proceed no further with Bylaw 107 (LA-2026-015). They request that draft Bylaw 108 and its project charter return at the earliest available meeting (LA-2026-014). That request is not first reading or adoption of 108. No later decision was found in the recent document listings checked on November 1.

Lasqueti draft minutes, July 6, page 5

The incoming Trust Council

The Trust’s October 22 release confirms the elected or acclaimed trustees for the twelve local trust areas. Bowen’s municipal appointments remain pending until November 9. Trustees are scheduled to be sworn in on November 12, with inaugural Council meetings on November 13 and 14. The current term and the incoming term are distinct.

Trustee confirmation release, October 22

Ferry funding: the federal response

In an October 27 letter to the Trust, the federal Transport Minister describes the existing coastal ferry subsidy agreement. The letter puts the 2026–27 grant to British Columbia at approximately $38.6 million and says the Province determines which ferry services receive assistance. It directs questions about fares and service costs to the Province. This is a response about existing arrangements, rather than an announcement of a new local ferry service or fare reduction.

Federal Transport Minister’s response, October 27, pages 1–2

Other local votes · checked 21 October

qathet’s signed September 18 acclamation notice declares Shelley Elizabeth Garside elected as Electoral Area E director. That regional-district office is separate from Lasqueti’s Trust seats.

qathet, signed acclamation declaration, September 18

This is a dated status check, not a full re-audit of every bylaw. Read the Firestarter.

An off-grid, foot-passenger-ferry island known for its independent, self-reliant community.

Latest research and writing

New reports come first. Open each piece to check its sources.

  • A Reverse Dunkirk in Scottie Bay Published August 16, 2026
    The Islands Trust spent five years and a lawsuit trying to remove a private dock in Scottie Bay, defeating a second rezoning attempt in May 2025 — two months before a floatplane crash closed Lasqueti's only ferry dock and that same private dock became how marooned islanders got home. Paired with an enforcement system whose only escalation is court and land-use rules that leave guest cabins empty amid a housing shortage, the saga shows a process that is slow, discretionary, and disconnected from the island's ferry-dependent reality.

Ferry tracker

French Creek passenger ferry — live sailings and vessel positions sit at the top of this page. Official schedules: lasqueti.ca/island-info/lasqueti_ferry.

Ownership and relationship

Private, personal project. Lasqueti Town is built and run by Tony Aly, a publisher and software builder on Denman Island. It is his private campaign. No government or local group runs or endorses it.

The linked Abolish Islands Trust campaign asks BC to change the law and end the Trust. A future island group may choose a different path.

A domain is not a local chapter.

Keep going

More for our island

01Homes and island life02Water03Building rules04Pay and work costs05Island news06Who has signed