“Measuring and preserving the Island way of life.”
There is a wealth of information available on well-being measurement, quality of life, and other ways of measuring progress in our society. There’s so much that we divided them into four sections:
Quality of life and well-being indicators can be grouped into three general categories, with varying objectives. They include:
a) Economic measurements
These types of indicators are a variation of GDP. They are an objective measurement of economic factors like income, but unlike GDP they balance total expenditures against costs to the economy such as environmental damage and poor health.
One example of this type of measurement is the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). GPI starts by measuring personal income and expenditure. It differs from GDP in that it also measures factors like unpaid work, environmental damage and the economic costs of social problems like crime, addiction and sickness. It then subtracts these costs from GDP.
b) Well-being measurements
These indicators are subjective measurements of well-being usually conducted by surveys. They are useful in that they reflect what people themselves see as important to their own well-being, but because they are subjective, they may not identify factors that people do not recognise as being important to well-being, such as the environment or health.
The largest of these is the World Values Survey (WVS), led by an international network of experts based in Sweden. It regularly surveys people in almost 100 countries about life satisfaction.
c) Composite measurements
These indicators combine both objective and subjective measurements. They measure a range of factors such as life satisfaction, health, community involvement, democratic engagement and employment.
An example of a composite set of indicators is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Better Life Index. The OECD website allows individuals to conduct their own survey and then compare the results of different countries.
Another example is the Happy Planet Index, which weighs subjective international survey results about life satisfaction against objective measurements of ecological footprints.
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Efforts to introduce legislation that facilitates quality of life and well-being measurements are not new in Canada. In 2001 the federal Liberal government introduced the Canada Well-being Measurement Act
, which did not pass. Since then the federal Green Party has attempted to introduce the Canada Genuine Progress Measurement Act
, which has also not passed.
Although legislation has not yet been passed, governments continue to collect and review data based on quality of life and well-being. See for example:
Indicators of Well-being in Canada: Employment and Social Development Canada
Quality of Life Reporting System: Federation of Canadian Municipalities
a) Atlantic Canada:
Efforts to identify a better way of measuring quality of life and well-being are not new to Atlantic Canada.
GPI Atlantic has worked to develop a Genuine Progress Indicator for Nova Scotia. In 2001 Nova Scotia introduced its own Well-being Measurement Act, although it did not pass.
Labrador and Newfoundland maintains Community Accounts, a resource for well-being indicators, demographic profiles, and other community information.
b) Prince Edward Island
Studies about quality of life indicators have been taking place in Prince Edward Island for over a decade. See for example:
Quality of Life in Rural and Small Town Prince Edward Island. David Bruce and Patricia Gadsden (Sackville, NB: Rural and Small Town Programme, Mount Allison University, c. 1999)
Quality of Island Life Survey: Tyne Valley and Surrounding Areas, 2006. Dolores LaVangie, Irené Novaczek, Stacey Enman, Rachel MacKay and Katherine Clough (University of Prince Edward Island: Institute of Island Studies) 2006
A Search for a Measure of the Quality of Life on Prince Edward Island: an Inter-provincial ‘Cost of Living’ Inquiry. Godfrey Baldacchino and Matt Funk (University of Prince Edward Island: Island Studies Program, 2008)
Social and Cultural Values Mapping as a Decision-Support Tool for Climate Change Adaptation. I. Novaczek, J. MacFadyen, D. Bardati, K. MacEachern. (University of Prince Edward Island: Institute of Island Studies) 2011.
“Immigrants, Islandness and Perceptions of Quality of Life on Prince Edward Island.” James Randall, Peter Kitchen, Nazeem Muhajarine, Bruce Newbold, Allison Williams and Kathleen Wilson. Island Studies Journal, (2014) vol. 9, no., 2, pp. 343 – 362
The State of Rural Prince Edward Island. James Randall, Don Desserud and Katharine MacDonald (Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, 2015)
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“Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things… Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them… Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1968)