“MetroQuest was very effective at getting elected officials throughout the metropolitan region to think beyond the present realm – to look at things from an intergenerational perspective. It was a unique experience – seeing politicians really begin to appreciate the long term consequences of shorter term decisions and policies in critical areas like land use, housing, transportation, and so on.”

Richard Quail, Municipal Manager
City of Okotoks (Greater Calgary)

"I think we’ll very rapidly see QUEST become part of the social decision-making process all over the planet. I think this is probably the greatest single tool to improve governance on the planet in a generation. It will lead to much better, much more informed, much more ecologically sound, and much more ecosystem based decision making.”

Jim Fulton, Executive Director
David Suzuki Foundation

"Wow! Imagine if we could take a tool like [MetroQuest] and infuse it into the capabilities of the young people of the city and of the decision makers of the city, both present and future, and allow people to be able to imagine and visualize the futures that current decision makers are producing, and therefore think long-term about the implications of what is being done. This [Toronto MetroQuest] project holds the possibilities for such a broad engagement. In fact, that is how it is unfolding ... in other cities."

Jack Layton, Leader, New Democratic Party of Canada
Video transcript from May 2002, speaking as Toronto City Councillor

“While there is certainly nothing new about using systems dynamics modeling to create future scenarios, the ability to make the system comprehensible to nonexperts, dynamically create scenarios in real-time and catalogue stakeholder preferences combine to make a tool that is truly unique. Ultimately, what QUEST does is foster community dialogue by employing the power of scenario building. The power of QUEST lies in its ability to bring clarity to the complexity of regional planning by empowering the community to create and explore scenarios in real-time, and in turn capture these scenarios in a catalogue of preferred futures that can be used by decision-makers at all levels and across all sectors.”

Dr. David V. J. Bell, Director
York University Center for Applied Sustainability, Toronto

“At BC Hydro we see ourselves as a company that is committed to the principles of sustainability. What goes along with that is how do you get stakeholders to appreciate what the options are and what the tradeoffs are. We think QUEST is a very valuable tool in helping to allow people to work through what becomes a very complicated set of problems. We need the public to understand this a lot better. QUEST would be invaluable because it gets you away from people just sitting around saying, ‘Well I think we should do this and I think we should do that.’ You can then take your theories and assumptions and put it to the test.”

David Balser, Corporate Sustainability Group Manager
BC Hydro, Vancouver

“QUEST is truly a remarkable effort. It is not surprising that QUEST has won accolades nor that other regions are exploring or developing QUEST applications for their regions. The program is recommended to students of systems modeling, futures studies, and sustainable development research.”

Dr. C. Jones
Studies of the Future Program, University of Houston
Futures Journal 34 (2002) 465–470

"It's a very engaging sort of thing. You get a very nice, comprehensive view of what matters to people and what they're willing to do.”

Roger Anderson, Senior Program Manager
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Seattle.
Quoted in the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, Environment, 2 April 2003

“As urban development increases, so does the pressure to find solutions to our challenges around transportation, urban growth, fisheries, waste management, air pollution and habitat for wildlife. Solutions to these complex challenges will only come through dialogue and partnerships. [QUEST] is all about engaging decision makers, including local governments in making sustainable decisions for the future, and is pleased to be working in partnership with the QUEST project.”

Bruce Kay, Manager
Georgia Basin Ecosystem Initiative, Environment Canada