A public petition for a Denman governance study
It is time for Denman Island to govern itself.
Denman has 1,400 residents, fourteen overlapping governance bodies, no elected local council, and no single body accountable to anyone 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.
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Denman Island is home to roughly 1,400 year-round residents and a few hundred more in season. Our population grew nearly 20 percent between 2016 and 2021 — almost three 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, where most of BC’s farmed shellfish are produced, are regulated by Fisheries and Oceans Canada from Ottawa. Fourteen separate 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 roughly seventy percent of our local government 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.
Why
Fourteen governance bodies. 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 that has the food bank serving 100 people on a Thursday afternoon, 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
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 residents and property owners of Denman Island, British Columbia, and our connected community, 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 within the Islands Trust, on the model of Bowen Island Municipality.
We make this request on the following grounds:
— Denman Island has grown by 19.4 percent between the 2016 and 2021 censuses — nearly three 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 at least seven separate community organizations and improvement districts, 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;
— Both Bowen Island (1999) and Okanagan Falls (2025) provide clear, recent precedents for a Restructure Study leading to local incorporation under the BC Local Government Act;
— 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.
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 currently being implemented — 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.
Signing takes 30 seconds. We email you a one-click link to confirm. Your name appears on the wall below within minutes. Your address is never displayed publicly.
The signers
Be one of the first to sign · Updated May 2, 2026