On Vancouver Island · Pre-Opening · In Planning
Care That Grows
Out of the Land
The Arcadia Ranch is a planned farm-based community where elders live and work on farmland — with continuous care from independent living through direct and memory care, and generations mixed on purpose.
Three revenue streams — member fees, goods from the farm and workshops, and charitable gifts — with no ongoing government subsidy. Modelled on a 50+ year-old farm-based elder-care community, kept anonymous.
- Starting scale (planning)
- 12–24 elders, growing toward 20–30
- Structure (planned)
- Private foundation + separate operating non-profits
Chapter 01 — The Community
Why Farmland,
and Not a Corridor
Most elder care asks a person to give up the things that made their days make sense. We are planning the opposite: a place where getting older happens inside useful, ordinary, seasonal life — on one piece of ground, with the same faces.
Plan a visit to the land and walk the plan with us.
This project is pre-opening. Nothing on this page is built, licensed, funded or earning yet. The figures and structures described are planning estimates, not guarantees.
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The Season Sets the Schedule
Spring seeding, summer harvest, autumn preserving, winter mending. A year with texture is easier to live inside than a year of identical afternoons — and easier to remember.
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Farm to Plate, Same Address
A working kitchen garden is planned to supply the dining program. Lunch is often something a resident, a volunteer or a grandchild pulled out of the ground that week.
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Everyone Still Has Work
Sorting seed, shelling beans, folding laundry, holding a chicken, teaching a teenager to prune. Contribution is scaled to ability, never withdrawn.
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You Do Not Move Away to Get Care
Support increases; the address, the faces and the view out the window do not change. Continuity of care is the whole design, not an upgrade path.
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Generations Mixed on Purpose
Staff families, apprentices, school groups, volunteers, neighbours buying vegetables. A farm gives strangers a reason to keep showing up.
Chapter 02 — The Model
A Proven Model,
Rebuilt for the Island
Arcadia is not an experiment. It is a deliberate adaptation of a farm-based elder-care community that has been running for more than fifty years.
We do not name that community here. We have learned from it, and we will keep learning from it — publicly crediting what is credit-worthy once our own version is standing. What we take from it is the shape of the thing: elders living and working on farmland, care that follows a person as their needs change, and a working farm that pays a real share of the bills.
What we add is local: Vancouver Island land, BC licensing, Canadian charity law, and a governance structure built so the land can never be sold out from under the residents.
The Model in One Paragraph
Live Here, Work Here, Be Cared For Here
Elders move into private homes or suites on working farmland. They keep gardens, animals, studios and a hand in the farm economy for as long as they are able. As needs rise, care is delivered on the same campus — assisted and personal care first, then direct and memory care in a small-house care building a few steps from the gardens. Intergenerational contact is scheduled, not accidental: apprentices, school groups, staff families and volunteers are on the land every week.
It is sized small on purpose. Small enough that faces stay familiar, and large enough that the farm, the workshops and the care team can each carry their share.
Chapter 03 — The Continuum
Choose a Level of Care
Three settings, one community. Pick the one that describes your parent — or you — today, and read what a week looks like at that level.
Independent Living
You keep your own front door, your own hours and as much of the farm as you want. Housekeeping, maintenance and the dining program are handled; the rest of the day is yours to spend.
- A private home or suite with room for your own furniture and a view of pasture, orchard or forest.
- Meals in the common dining room when you want company — a kitchenette for when you don’t.
- A bed in the kitchen garden, a bench in the studio or a shift at the farm stand, if you like.
- Care staff already know you, long before you need them.
- Planned starting scale of 6–10 independent homes alongside the shared buildings.
Assisted & Personal Care
Help with the parts of the day that have become hard — bathing, dressing, medications, getting to appointments — delivered by the same small team, in the same community, without a move to another town.
- Personal support scheduled around your habits, not around a shift chart.
- Meals, laundry and mobility assistance with an eye on the independence you still have.
- Coordination with your family doctor, allied health and Island Health services.
- Farm work continues in seated, sheltered and short-shift forms.
Direct & Memory Care
For elders needing hands-on care through the day and night, a central care house on campus holds small households rather than long wings — with the gardens, animals and kitchen still a few steps away.
- A planned 8–12 bed care house, arranged as small resident groups so faces, sounds and routines stay recognisable.
- Sensory access to the farm: raised beds, a warm greenhouse, animals brought to the door.
- Family welcome at meals, in the garden and overnight where needed.
- Comfort-focused, plain-language care planning with families at the table.
- Licensing is planned under BC’s Community Care and Assisted Living Act, through the Assisted Living Registry with Island Health.
Chapter 04 — A Day Here
The Rhythm of an
Ordinary Tuesday
- The Barn Wakes First
Whoever likes early mornings walks down for eggs. Coffee is on in the common kitchen by the time they’re back.
- Breakfast, Then the Board
A chalkboard lists what needs doing today: beans to pick, a fence to check, a cake for a birthday.
- Garden and Studio Shifts
Two hours of hands-in-dirt or hands-in-clay. Weaving, candle making, glass, woodwork and pottery run in the studios year-round.
- Lunch from the Rows
The kitchen cooks what came in this morning. Tables seat elders, staff, apprentices and visiting families together.
- Rest, Music, Visitors
Naps, a fiddle in the hall, school groups on the trail, a physiotherapist doing rounds.
- Supper and Chores
Animals settled, dishes done in company, and a walk to the forest edge for anyone who wants the light.
The Signature Idea
Land’s Life, Plotted Against Yours
We chart the farm year and a resident’s year on the same line. When your capacity dips, the farm offers a smaller job — not an exit. When you’re strong, the farm asks more of you.
Gold points are the shared tasks: seeding, berry days, preserving, seed sorting. Everyone can reach at least one of them.
Chapter 05 — The Farm & Workshops
What Feeds Us,
and What Funds Us
The land is planned to carry a real share of the food served here, and the workshops are planned to carry a real share of the income. Every resident gets a job worth getting dressed for.
01 — Kitchen Garden & Orchard
Rows Planned Around the Menu
The garden is laid out with the cook, not the catalogue: salad greens near the door, storage crops out where the tractor can turn, herbs where wheelchairs can reach. Successions are planted so something is always ready to pick with a resident at your elbow. Apples, plums and pears come from the orchard row — pressing day is the loudest day of the year.
02 — Dairy, Eggs & Produce
Animals Close to the House
Hens, a small milking herd and kitchen crops — the daily walk down that comes with them, and the surplus that goes to market.
03 — Preserving Kitchen
Winter Is Made in August
Jam, kraut, dried herbs, applesauce and preserves — stocked for the dining room and sold under the Arcadia label.
04 — The Workshops
Weaving, Candles, Glass, Wood and Clay
Studios sit next door to the preserving kitchen, so a person can move between a jar and a loom in the same afternoon: textiles and weaving, candle making, glass blowing, woodwork and pottery. Finished work furnishes the dining room, goes home with families, and is sold as goods. The same studios run public workshops and day-programs for the wider community — a second income from the same roof.
Where the Goods Go
Four channels, planned together so none of them has to carry the whole load: on site at the farm stand and studio shop; farmers’ markets on the Island; CSA shares and produce boxes by subscription; and wholesale to local kitchens and shops.
And Who Makes It
Residents first, in shifts scaled to ability. Then apprentices and staff, then volunteers, then paid instructors for the public workshops. The point is not that residents are the labour force — it is that the work is real, the income is real, and everyone who wants a hand in it has one.
Chapter 06 — The Economics
Three Streams, No Subsidy
Most long-term care is funded by per-bed government money or by very high private fees. Arcadia is planned the other way: three honest streams that are intended to keep member rates roughly 50–75% below conventional private long-term care — without asking taxpayers to carry us.
Stream 01
Member Fees
The foundation of the model. Planning fees of roughly $3,000–$6,000+ per month, set well below the conventional route because the farm feeds the house and the workshops turn a hand to the work.
Stream 02
What the Farm and Workshops Make
Produce, preserves, dairy and eggs from the land; weaving and textiles, candle making, glass blowing, woodwork and pottery from the studios — sold on site, at farmers’ markets, by CSA share and wholesale, plus public workshops and day-programs.
Stream 03
Gifts and Bequests
Charitable, memorial and planned/legacy giving — tax-receipted under CRA rules once the charitable structure is registered. This is what keeps membership affordable, holds the reserve, and funds the build.
Planning Fees vs. the Conventional Route
Planning estimates only. Final bands depend on land, construction, approvals and the care mix — so we show you the shape of the comparison now and the confirmed numbers when we can stand behind them.
Ranges reflect room type, level of care and the number of residents sharing a household. They are planning figures, not quotations, and they are not commitments.
Planning Revenue Mix
An illustrative assumption, not a forecast: roughly two-thirds of revenue comes from member fees, with the farm and studios and the philanthropic stream each carrying a real share. The mix is expected to move year to year.
- Member fees — the floor of the model, and the reason the doors stay open in a quiet giving year.
- Farm and workshop goods, workshops and day-programs — the stream most exposed to weather and markets, and the most improvable.
- Gifts and bequests — the stream that funds construction, the care house and the reserve.
Why Three Streams Matter
The three streams barely move together. A lean harvest is steadied by fees. A quiet giving year is steadied by the market. A soft market is steadied by the workshops and by member demand. That is why a farm community can run for fifty years — and why we think ours can, too. No stream is asked to be reliable on its own.
Note: charitable giving, receipting and any business activity carried on by a charity are regulated. The structures and tax treatment described on this page are planning intentions and remain subject to CRA, legal and tax advice before anything is implemented.
Chapter 07 — The Foundation
Two Layers,
One Purpose
A Canadian private foundation is planned to hold the assets of the project and to fund the entities that do the work. It is a planning description, not an existing structure — nothing has been registered yet.
The reason for two layers is legal, not ornamental. Under CRA rules a private foundation cannot itself carry on a business. The ranch, the farms, the workshops and the care services are therefore planned to be run by separate secondary non-profit and charitable corporations, which the foundation funds and holds accountable.
The foundation’s stated purpose: create the first Arcadia Ranch on Vancouver Island, then promote and develop additional entities across Canada. As a forward note only, expansion into North America beyond Canada would require separate legal and tax counsel in each jurisdiction.
Layer 1 — Asset holder & funder
The Arcadia Foundation (planned)
A CRA-registered Canadian private foundation is planned, with three directors. It would hold all of the project’s assets — land, buildings, reserves — and disburse funds to the operating entities so that the mission survives changes in management, markets and people.
Disbursement is how a private foundation stays compliant and how it keeps the operating side honest: money follows an approved plan, reviewed annually.
Layer 2 — Operators
Separate operating non-profits & charities
Distinct corporations run the ranch, the farms, the workshops and the care services. They employ staff, hold licences, sign residency agreements and sell goods — activities a private foundation cannot carry on directly.
Because the assets sit with the foundation rather than with any operator, the land is protected if an operator ever struggles or changes.
Three Directors, One Mission
A small, deliberate board for the foundation, with the operating entities governed separately and reporting to it.
Assets Held, Not Spent
Land and buildings are held for the long term so that a bad year never becomes a sale of the farm.
Canada First
Purpose written to establish the first Arcadia Ranch on Vancouver Island, then to promote and develop further entities across Canada.
Structure Subject to Advice
Registration, disbursement quotas, business-activity limits and cross-border expansion all remain subject to CRA, legal and tax advice. Nothing here is legal advice.
Chapter 08 — The Plans
Two Business Plans,
Both Available
The project is documented. A start-up plan and a five-year operations plan have been prepared, and both are shared with prospective investors, donors, volunteers and founding partners — under a simple conversation, not a paywall.
Plan 01 — Start-Up
From Founding to Doors Opening
Everything required to get from where we are now to a licensed, staffed, occupied community.
- Land acquisition and site selection on Vancouver Island
- Legal and charitable structuring, including the foundation and operating entities
- Licensing pathway and regulatory approvals
- Design and construction of homes, the care house and the workshops
- Founding team, governance and first hires
- Capital plan and philanthropic case for support
Plan 02 — Operations, Five Years
From First Resident to Steady State
How the community is expected to run, staff, feed itself and balance its books once open.
- Care model, staffing ratios and continuity of care as needs rise
- Farm and workshop production plan, and the four sales channels
- Revenue mix, fee bands and the philanthropic program, year by year
- Food program, kitchen garden rotations and preserving calendar
- Volunteer and apprenticeship pipeline, plus public workshops and day-programs
- Reserve policy, maintenance and long-term asset stewardship
Both documents are planning tools, not guarantees. Figures in them are estimates, and every legal and structural item remains subject to CRA, legal and tax advice. Ask for a walkthrough and we will take you through them honestly, including what we have not solved.
Chapter 08 — Place & Licensing
Why Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is not a compromise location; it is the obvious one. A notably mild coastal climate — the reason it is nicknamed "Fantasy Island" — makes year-round growing, walking and outdoor life realistic in a way it is not in most of Canada. Add extraordinary recreation, rural beauty at a workable price, and a growing population of mid-to-high-income Canadian retirees, and you have both the residents and the soil for this model.
It is also a natural base of philanthropic and volunteer support: people who live here, love it, and want the place they retire to still be good for the people who come after them. Island residents of public profile are a possible audience for that support — approached respectfully and privately, and never named publicly as donors without explicit permission.
Licensing & Starting Scale
Care in British Columbia is regulated, and we intend to be regulated properly from the first day the doors open. The planning pathway is registration with BC’s Community Care and Assisted Living Act and the Assisted Living Registry, working with Island Health.
Starting Scale — 12 to 24 Elders
Six to ten independent homes alongside an eight to twelve bed care house, sized so the first cohort is small enough to know each other.
Growing Toward 20 to 30
A full continuum of 20–30 people once the model is proven, the farm is producing and the care team has tenure.
No Claimed Status
We are not licensed, built or operating. We are pre-opening, and we would rather tell you that plainly than imply otherwise.
Chapter 09 — How You Can Help
There Is a Place for
Nearly Everyone
This is a community in planning, which means the people who join now shape it. Here is honestly where help is needed.
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Prospective Resident or Family
Talk to us early. Tell us what your parent actually wants and what worries you most; it steers the design. Ask for the cost outline and the care-level detail, and come walk the land.
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Investor or Founding Partner
We are seeking the capital and the founding partners who will take this from plan to ground. The start-up plan sets out land, build, licensing and first hires; the operations plan sets out the running model. Ask for both and a conversation.
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Volunteer
Gardeners, drivers, musicians, carpenters, bakers, weavers, and people who will simply sit and talk. Skills for the workshops and public day-programs are especially welcome. Volunteers built this model elsewhere; they will build it here.
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Professional Advisor
Lawyers, accountants, financial planners and estate professionals who can refer planned giving, review charitable structures, or advise on land and securities gifts. If you advise clients who care about elder care, we would like to know you.
Giving — While We Are Still Building
Ways to Give, and What to Expect
A gift now is a gift to a project that does not yet have doors. We will be straight with you about that, and we will tell you exactly what your gift is being used for.
- One-time gifts toward land, the care house, the workshops or the founding fund.
- Monthly giving — steady, unglamorous money that keeps planning and design moving.
- Bequests and wills — a legacy gift that funds the community long after us.
- Gifts of securities — handled through your advisor; tax treatment differs from cash and is worth asking about.
- Gifts of land — the most valuable gift this project can receive, and the one that needs the most careful advice.
Every method above needs your own legal and tax advice. Official donation receipts and the rules that govern them depend on CRA and on the charitable structure being registered — so please ask us for the current status before you make a decision. Nothing on this page is tax or legal advice.
Planning Targets
The Plan in Numbers
Planning figures for the community as designed. They will move as site work, licensing and fundraising progress — ask us for the current version.
Questions
The Things Families
and Funders Ask First
Not answered here? Send us your question and a person — not a form — will write back.
Frequently asked questions
Planning fees are roughly $3,000–$6,000+ per month, against roughly $6,000–$12,000+ per month for conventional private long-term care — about 50–75% below, depending on the room, the level of care and how many people share a household. We can hold that position because the community is designed to run on three streams rather than one: member fees, goods from the farm and workshops, and gifts and bequests. It is deliberately structured to need no ongoing government subsidy. These are planning estimates, not quotations, and final bands depend on land, construction and approvals. Ask for the cost outline and we will send the current figures.
Care in British Columbia is regulated, and we plan to be registered under BC’s Community Care and Assisted Living Act with the Assisted Living Registry, working with Island Health — with the necessary approvals in place before anyone moves in. We are pre-opening and at the development and approvals stage now, so we will not claim a status we do not yet hold. We are happy to walk your family through exactly where the process stands.
We are not going to invent a date. Opening depends on land, funding, construction and licensing approvals, and the honest answer is that it will follow the start-up business plan rather than a promise. What we can tell you now is the sequence: land, legal and charitable structure, licensing pathway, build, then first residents. If you leave your details we will keep you on a straightforward update list — no marketing stream to escape from.
Giving and bequests are one of the three funding streams, not a nice-to-have — they fund the build, the care house and the reserve. The project is planned around a CRA-registered Canadian private foundation that would hold the assets and disburse funds to separate operating non-profits and charities, because a private foundation cannot itself carry on a business. Official donation receipts depend on that charitable structure being registered and on CRA rules, so please ask us for the current status. One-time gifts, monthly giving, bequests through your will, gifts of securities and gifts of land are all possibilities — each needs your own legal and tax advice first. Nothing on this page is tax or legal advice.
No formal affiliation, and no permission granted or implied. Arcadia is an independent Canadian project that has studied a 50+ year-old farm-based elder-care community — kept anonymous here — and is adapting its principles for Vancouver Island. We will give credit openly once our own version is standing. Until then, the naming stays with them, not with us.
That is the plan and the whole reason for the three-stream design: member fees carry the base, farm and workshop goods and public programs carry a share, and gifts and bequests fund the build and hold a reserve for lean years. Because those three streams do not move together, no single one is asked to be reliable on its own. This is a planning assumption, not a guarantee — the five-year operations plan sets out how we expect it to work in practice, and we will show it to you.
People who would rather be useful than served: gardeners, cooks, makers, teachers, farmers, and anyone who has always felt better outdoors. It suits elders who want company and structure without giving up autonomy — and families who want one place that can keep caring as needs grow, from independent living through direct and memory care. It is less suited to someone seeking an urban high-rise lifestyle, or to complex acute medical needs that belong in hospital care.
On rural acreage on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in a mild coastal climate suited to year-round growing and outdoor life. Site walks run by appointment while the community is being planned — sturdy boots, an hour on the land, and all the questions you brought, including the ones we have not solved. Plan a visit and we will offer dates.
Come and See
Plan a Visit to the Land
Tell us a little about who you’re asking for, or what you’d like to bring. We’ll write back with dates, the plans you asked for, and the answers to whatever you asked — usually within two working days.
Thank You — Your Note Is on Its Way
We’ve got your request and someone from the community will reply by email, usually within two working days, with dates and answers.
Before You Come
What a Site Visit Involves
- An Hour on the Land
Gardens, orchard, pasture, the workshop sites and where the care house would go — at walking pace.
- Coffee and Straight Answers
Care levels, the licensing path, the fee bands as far as we know them, the foundation structure, and what we haven’t solved yet.
- Bring the Elder If You Can
The best judge of whether this feels like home is the person who’d live here. Bring your advisor too, if you have one.
Prefer to phone or write?
Phone [phone] · Email [email]
Rural acreage on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
The Arcadia Ranch is pre-opening. We are not licensed, built, funded or earning yet; all figures are planning estimates, and legal and structural items remain subject to CRA, legal and tax advice.