A privately maintained petition for a Denman governance study
A council Denman elects — and can replace.
Founding-signature phase · help us reach the first 100 confirmed Denman supporters.
Denman had 1,391 residents in the 2021 Census, overlapping local, regional, provincial, and federal authorities, no elected municipal council, and no single body accountable to everyone who lives here. We’re petitioning the Province of British Columbia for a Restructure Study — the first formal step toward incorporating Denman as its own municipality, on the model of Bowen Island.
New here? Start here →
Spread the word
Every share finds another signer. GO BIG.
The problem at a glance
One island. No general-purpose municipal council.
Denman has community life in one place, but public authority is split across statutory governments and regulators, CVRD services, Crown or contracted providers, and community nonprofits. These are different kinds of bodies, not fourteen governments. The petition asks the Province for the study that lets residents test a simpler model.
Denman Island recorded 1,391 residents in the 2021 Census and has additional seasonal residents. Our population grew nearly 20 percent between 2016 and 2021 — roughly two and a half times the BC provincial average of 7.6 percent over the same period. We are an island of farmers, artists, retirees, tradespeople, builders, and families. We have a school, two community halls, a fire department, two churches, a museum, a market, a clinic, and more registered non-profits than streetlights.
What we do not have is a single elected body that anyone living here can hold accountable. Land-use planning is run by a three-person committee chaired by a Trust appointee who lives somewhere else. Roads are run by the Ministry of Transportation in Victoria. Solid waste, water, recreation, and emergency services are delivered through a regional district headquartered in Courtenay. Bylaw enforcement is handled by a Trust officer over email. The waters around our island, which produce a large share of BC’s farmed shellfish — including most of its manila clams — are regulated under federal and provincial regimes. Multiple non-profit, regional, provincial, and federal bodies divide the rest. We have democracy, but it is a democracy of fragments.
The path that is actually available to us is the path Bowen Island took in 1999: incorporate as an island municipality, with our own mayor and council deciding what happens here. The Trust’s role would shrink from running most of our land-use governance to approving our Official Community Plan and managing the regional Conservancy. We are asking the Province of British Columbia to commission a Restructure Study under the Local Government Act — the same legal mechanism that produced Bowen in 1999 and Okanagan Falls in 2025 — so that Denman Island can decide its own future at a referendum. Below, you can read the case in detail. And below that, you can sign your name.
Two petitions · two decisions · no tricks
A town is one decision. Abolishing the Trust is another.
The Denman petition asks for a town: first a provincially supported Restructure Study and, only if residents later choose it, a municipality. Current law wraps that municipality inside the Trust while the Trust area exists. That constraint is not a promise to preserve the Trust.
The abolition petition separately 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. Support either petition, both, or neither. Read the exact words first.
Why
Fragmented authority. No single elected council.
A patchwork of regional districts, trust committees, residents’ associations, federal fisheries authority, and provincial ministries — none of which answer to Denman as a community. Plus the cable ferry, the roads, the power outages, the housing crisis reflected in the food bank’s growing caseload, the oyster leases that surround us, and the modern treaty unfolding right now.
Read the case →
How
The Bowen path, the Okanagan Falls path, the BC restructure process.
We are not the first community to ask for this. There is a well-marked legislative process under the BC Local Government Act, and two recent precedents that show what comes next.
Read the path →
Context
Fifty-two years of the Islands Trust. A century-and-a-half of Denman.
The Trust was an NDP-era reform that worked for a generation, then drifted. The ALR is our quieter twin. Denman is older than both. The full story matters.
Read the history →
The petition
A petition to the Government of British Columbia
Version 3, adopted 2026-08-24. If you signed version 1, your signature remains attached to the words you saw. Use your private link to keep, amend, or withdraw it. Doing nothing does not pretend that you re-signed.
To the Honourable Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs of the Province of British Columbia, and to all Members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.
We, the undersigned Denman Island residents, qualifying non-resident property electors, and connected supporters, respectfully petition the Government of British Columbia to commission a Restructure Study under the Local Government Act for the purpose of evaluating the incorporation of Denman Island as a self-governing municipality. Under current law, any new municipality whose area lies entirely in the Islands Trust area must be incorporated as an island municipality (Local Government Act s. 6). That is why a study commissioned today would use the Bowen Island Municipality model. We want a town whether or not the Islands Trust continues. This petition is not a promise to keep the Trust, and it is not a substitute for the separate petition asking the Province to abolish it. Property ownership alone does not establish elector eligibility.
We make this request on the following grounds:
— Denman Island has grown by 19.4 percent between the 2016 and 2021 censuses — roughly two and a half times the BC provincial average growth rate over the same period;
— Denman Island is currently governed by a fragmented patchwork of overlapping authorities including the Islands Trust, the Comox Valley Regional District, the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, BC Ferries, and separate community organizations and local service bodies, none of which is directly elected by and accountable to Denman residents as a single coherent local government;
— The Islands Trust Council has itself, in 2022 and again in 2024, formally requested a comprehensive provincial review of the Islands Trust Act and its governance structures;
— Bowen Island (1999) and the Okanagan Falls process approved by referendum in 2025 provide useful BC examples of restructure studies and local incorporation; Okanagan Falls is scheduled to incorporate formally on November 6, 2026;
— A Restructure Study is the lawful, evidence-based first step in this process, providing residents and the Province with the financial, demographic, and governance information necessary to make an informed decision at a referendum.
— Signing this petition supports a town for Denman. It does not require the signer to support abolition, and it does not forbid it.
We therefore respectfully request that the Province commission a formal Restructure Study for Denman Island, with funding from the Restructure Planning Grant program of the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, and conducted by an independent consultant in collaboration with Denman residents, the Comox Valley Regional District, the Islands Trust, and — in recognition of the K’ómoks Treaty ratification and implementation process — the K’ómoks First Nation, with appropriate acknowledgement of the Pentlatch People whose traditional territory includes Denman Island.
We are prepared to do the work alongside you. We are asking only for the chance to ask ourselves the question.
Petition text version 3 · Revision history
Signing takes about a minute, plus the confirmation click we email you. Your name appears on the wall below within minutes. Your address is never displayed publicly.
Relevant interest: Denman Town is a private project maintained by Tony Aly, who lives at Camp Denman, a property with longstanding land-use disputes with the Islands Trust. That interest is disclosed so you can weigh the argument. Ownership and methods →
Signatures
Founding-signature phase · help us reach the first 100 confirmed Denman supporters on the petition.
Every confirmed public signer is listed on one simple page.