With the results in from community assessment project Vital Signs, Coast residents can now see how the community stacks up, relative to provincial and national averages, on everything from transportation to arts and culture.
And while the report rounds up and consolidates a lot of information, project manager Don Basham said it doesn't deliver many surprises.
For example, ferry fares - a perennial local gripe - got the worst marks, with the average return vehicle fare having risen by 19 per cent between June 2007 and March 2009.
"Probably the number one indicator that got the lowest grade and probably worries people the most is still B.C. Ferries," Basham said. "I believe it's the only indicator that got a totally negative grade from people in the community."
Some minor surprises may lie in some of the report's good news.
"There might be a couple of indicators there where people might go, 'Wow, we didn't know that,'" he said.
For example, the report notes that 95 to 100 per cent of Grade 12s eligible to graduate in 2008 graduated.
"I don't know why that would surprise us, but it just bodes well for what we're doing in the school system," he said.
The Sunshine Coast Community Foundation (SCCF) put together the Vital Signs report with funding from the Vancouver Foundation. The report is modelled after the original Vital Signs project, which was developed by the Toronto Community Foundation, and has since been emulated in cities across Canada.
The 16-page report, Basham said, was developed in consultation with community experts and incorporates survey information gleaned from more than 100 local "citizen graders," as well as local, provincial and national data.
The report hones in on 11 key areas of interest: learning, getting started, environment, health and wellness, housing, arts and culture, the gap between rich and poor, safety, economic health, belonging and leadership, and getting around.
And in some of these areas, the report shows the Coast is thriving.
Arts and culture, for example, ranked highly in all categories: cultural employment, cultural volunteers, festivals and events, and government support for the arts.
As of the 2006 Census, the report says the Coast employed 5.1 per cent of the population in the arts and culture sector - far higher than both the provincial and national averages. Moreover, the Coast holds more than 90 festivals and events annually, with attendance ranging from 400 up to 10,000.
Similarly, learning and health and wellness fared well on most indicators, though the report says the Coast has a high and rising rate of deaths due to treatable diseases, such as tuberculosis, bacterial infections, hypertension, pneumonia and bronchitis.
On the other hand, the Coast received weaker grades for housing, the gap between rich and poor and "getting started," which looks at youth, child care and immigration.
The report states that housing is getting increasingly unaffordable for both renters and mortgage-holders. It defines unaffordable housing as housing that costs more than 30 per cent of household income. By this measure, it says that 45.7 per cent of rental households and 38.7 per cent of homeowners with mortgages have unaffordable housing -numbers which exceed both provincial and national averages. It also says that renting is more expensive than owning and notes a lack of subsidized housing.
The section looking at the gap between rich and poor states that while the Coast's seniors are relatively well-off, local young adults disproportionately rely on income assistance or unemployment insurance. And on a similar note, the getting started section notes a relative lack of support and services for immigrants, young adults and parents of young children.
Basham said the SCCF will use the Vital Signs report to be more strategic in its grant-making in the community.
"We get lots of requests for money, but it just gives us a really good handle on where the need really is," he said. "And we'll also use this to, perhaps, frame some of our leadership initiatives in the community, what needs to be done, and maybe we'll get a hold of people who are responsible in some of these areas and say, 'Hey, do you need some help?'"
Beyond that, he says, the report is designed to inform Sunshine Coasters and inspire them to strive towards a better community. At the end of each section, for example, the report provides tips on "how you can help." The safety section encourages the community to support restorative justice and to drive cautiously; the belonging and leadership section encourages people to organize block parties, donate to local charities or volunteer for a political party or cause.
"The goal there is to give the ordinary person in the street, all the community people on the Sunshine Coast, an opportunity to make change," Basham said. "It's there to point out that it's not necessarily government's responsibility to do this. It's not necessarily up to the agencies that spearhead these initiatives to do it. There's something there for every single person in the community to do to make it better."
