"There's a great energy in terms of community development in all of its aspects - economic, social, environmental and cultural, throughout our province. I think it's a powerful source to enrich life and lifestyles here in Nova Scotia. And we only want that to become deeper and better, and have more impact on the way we live in this province." - Jim Stanley, Principal, Nova Scotia Community College Annapolis Valley campus

"Good community development is led by communities. Government definitely has a role to facilitate and support, but we, in Halifax, or our colleagues in Ottawa cannot fix, help, develop-whatever proper word you want to use-your communities. This is something that's up to you." - Chris Bryant, Executive Director, Decision Support, Nova Scotia Economic Development

"Sustainability is enhanced when the citizens are energized and enabled to address their own issues and connect to their community." - Fred Whalen, Warden, Municipality of Kings County

"Every single person, group or community has the power to achieve change, should they choose to do so." - Dianne Kelderman, CEO, Nova Scotia Co-operative Council

"We have to think about innovation as something that has to do with insight, and has to do with imagination, and we have to bring a good deal of creativity to this." - Arthur Bull, Coastal Communities Network www.coastalcommunities.ns.ca

"John Ralston Saul believes that the Canadian-Anglophone majority can learn a lot about citizen empowerment by looking at how the French and other minority groups have maximized their public participation and visibility. In particular, he notes how minorities have embraced the power of the local and have learned to make themselves heard. This, he says, goes totally against the grain of current dogma that tells us that there is nothing locals can do and that international bodies or economic theories are deciding everything." - Jean Léger, général, de la Fédération acadienne de la Nouvelle-écosse

"If we can make access to government services and programs more accessible, we believe that it really will make a great deal of difference to communities and their ability to be effective and successful."

"The spirit of collaboration and working together is vital to the Government of Nova Scotia's new Community Development Policy. It is the same collaboration that is key to you in the important, often groundbreaking, work you are doing in your communities." - Ernest Fage, Honourable Minister of Economic Development.

"What is missing … in our societies is any place in which ordinary citizens may meet effectively to debate their allegiance to different and perhaps conflicting ways of life. This collective seminar, this conference, is a rebuttal of that sweeping remark." - Fred Inglis, Professor Emeritus, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

"When you're thinking about how government policy actually works in Nova Scotia, you shouldn't simply be thinking of where you are today and the successes of the kinds of things that you saw yesterday. You should also be thinking of where you want to be in five years' time, and how government can help you get there." - Susan Hodgett, Professor, University of Ulster, United Kingdom

"Access to good data makes a difference in how we understand and think about our community." - Rick Williams, President, Praxis Research Consulting

"I'm pleased to represent a community that has taken their name 'Canso' to say, 'We can do it.' We have major challenges ahead of us, but I think our greatest strength is our people, whom I represent, and it's their determination that keeps us going." - Ray White, Mayor, Town of Canso

"We've had a lot of interest from different communities both within and outside Canada to look at what we are doing as a business model. We think that (by creating) a Black Business Consultant (we) would be able to provide that service, raise some revenue and reinvest that back into our community to grow our services." - Gordon Doe, Director, Business Development, Black Business Initiative

"A little change can really change a lot if those principles of respect, sharing and a demonstrated partnership exist in your community. You can move forward and have a definite change. And you should all be champions of change because it does work when it is well planned." - Eileen Lannon Oldford, Executive Director, Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority www.cdceda.org/

"After Hurricane Juan, you saw a lot of informal power of the community organizing itself to take care of each other. I've often thought, what if you could do that somehow - mobilize people around a real good idea that would benefit the whole community. Imagine the power you could tap into." - John Ure, Associate Director, HeartWood Centre for Community Youth Development

"If you think of a community as a web of interdependent relationships and resources, you almost always have people at the core who do most of the work, and most are at the margins. A healthy community is one that reaches out and taps into those resources and pulls them into the centre." - Brian Braganza, Executive Director, HeartWood Centre for Community Youth Development

"If you don't have the right infrastructure in your community, if you don't have a labour force… there's no such thing as business recruitment." - Rhonda Kelly, Executive Director, Community Regional Economic Development Association

"I think we know that if we roll up our sleeves and focus on our own little sphere of influence and do those things that we're passionate about, that make our hearts sing, that we will have Nova Scotian communities that will be strong, vibrant, happy and healthy." - Marjorie Willison, Community Developer, Action for Neighbourhood Change, Spryfield, Halifax Regional Municipality

"At the Community College, we share a destiny with you… In Truro, where I work, if our region does well, so will our campus do well. And if we don't do well, if we don't respond to our needs in Colchester area, neither will our region do well." - Kevin Quinlan, Principal, Nova Scotia Community College, Truro Campus

"The underlying belief of (Volunteer Planning) is that democracy is a better thing, is much stronger, when citizens are engaged in an exclusive and transparent policy process which ultimately provides advice to government and to our fellow Nova Scotians." - Ron Smith, Chair, Voluntary Planning, Province of Nova Scotia