Private project. The petition is open. This domain preserves public information and asks the Province to study a Gabriola Island municipality with a council residents elect. It does not claim to speak for Gabriola Island.
We, the undersigned, call on the Province of British Columbia to study incorporating Gabriola 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.
The town petition asks for a municipality. Under current law a new municipality wholly inside the Islands Trust area must be an island municipality for as long as that area exists. That legal constraint is not a promise to preserve the Trust.
The separate abolition petition asks the Province to end the Trust. Planning would return to a municipality where an island has one and to the regional district where it does not. Sign one, both, or neither.
4,047 parcels across 6,255 hectares, mapped and inspectable. 452 Islands Trust meetings archived since 2012.
Parcel counts and hectares cover the whole Gabriola Island Local Trust Area as ParcelMap BC maps it, which includes foreshore and marine parcels as well as land. Treat the hectare figure as mapped parcel area, not the island's land area.
Statistics Canada counted 4,500 residents on Gabriola Island in the 2021 census, up from 4,033 in 2016 — a change of +11.6% in five years. There are 3,062 private dwellings, 2,375 of them lived in by usual residents — 22.4% were not occupied by usual residents on Census Day. The median age is 63.2, and about 4,146 residents are adults (18 or over) — an estimate, because Statistics Canada publishes no 18+ boundary at this geography. Figures are for the Gabriola Island Trust Area designated place. Source: Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0012-01 — Population and dwelling counts: Canada and designated places (2021 Census).
The most populous of the Northern Gulf Islands, a short ferry from Nanaimo, with one of the largest Trust caseloads.
Newest first; every claim footnoted to its source.
Mirrored provincial records link 4 aquifers to the stored Gabriola Island parcel region; the main one is linked to 2,659 regional land parcels, with 2,621 well records across the selected aquifers in full. These are parcel-region aggregates, not an island-only wells census. Classifications are the Province's own. Full water report for Gabriola Island →
A High vulnerability rating means relatively little natural protection between the surface and the water people draw from; it describes susceptibility, not current contamination. Source: Ground Water Aquifers — BC Data Catalogue (Open Government Licence — BC) and the Province's GWELLS registry.
Nanaimo Harbour–Descanso Bay (Route 19) — live sailings and vessel positions sit at the top of this page. Official schedules: www.bcferries.com/routes-fares/schedules.
Private, personal project. Gabriola Town was built privately and is maintained privately by Tony Aly, an independent publisher and software builder on Denman Island. It is not an official government, Islands Trust, regional-district, community-association, or locally endorsed website.
The related Abolish Islands Trust project advocates long-term provincial statutory change. A future locally led island project may choose a different position.
A domain is not a local chapter.